The Post Office calls it urban rejuvenation - most call it closing post offices. Lawrence Marzouk reports

A glance at Monday's regional press reveals the strength of feeling against Post Office plans to close 3,000 of its branches.

'Bid to save post offices will go right to the top', Cambridge News; Axe falls on post office branches', Huddersfield Daily Examiner; 'One in five say don't close post office', Walthamstow Guardian.

London too has been hit by Post Office restructuring, with a swathe of sites currently facing the axe and more announcements expected in coming weeks.

These plans have incurred the wrath of Barnet residents who believe sub-post offices should be safeguarded. But is the Post Office cutting down on an inefficient network, or depriving residents of an important service for the sake of profit?

Closures have been announced by constituency to allow MPs and residents' associations to see the post offices as part of a local nexus rather than individual branches.

For the Hendon seat, the Grahame Park branch, in The Concourse, has been earmarked for closure and a decision on its future is expected within a month, after public consultation came to a close this Tuesday.

In the Chipping Barnet area, sub-post offices in Wood Street, Barnet; East Barnet Road, East Barnet; Netherlands Road, New Barnet; and Mount Parade, Barnet; are under threat, and a proposal for closures in Golders Green and Finchley is imminent.

Few have argued against the need for the Post Office to streamline its business and cast off highly unprofitable offices, dating back to the subsidised public sector time, but most people are unhappy when the axe falls in their own backyard.

After becoming a public limited company in 2001, wholly owned by the Government, the Post Office was renamed Consignia and inherited a vast network of post offices and sub-post offices.

The planned closures are destined to help the company, which was renamed Royal Mail Group in 2002, to cut its huge debts and co-ordinate the closure of sub-post offices.

Sub-post offices are franchises of the Post Office, with the mother company providing financial and technical support, but leaving the day-to-day running to sub-post masters, who receive the profits.

The Post Office believes that too many urban sub-post offices are competing for too little business and that closures must be planned to ensure that communities are not left without an outlet.

In October 2002, Parliament gave the nod to a three-year blitz on 3,000 branches and, in June 2003, Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail Group, announced the scheme would be accelerated in order to end by December 2004.

George Hooper, Post Office head of area, said branches which do not pay their way had to close to help Post Office Ltd recoup the £194million it lost last year alone.

"Not long ago this led to a spate of uncontrolled closures, with sub-post masters believing they had no choice but to leave.

"By managing closures through this programme, we will have fewer branches but these will be viable and have a future," he said.

The Post Office points out that 95 per cent of people in towns and cities live within a mile of their nearest branch, with the majority within a mile of two or more and, even after closures, that level of access will be sustained.

But many residents see closures in a very different light.

Andrew Dismore, MP for Hendon who has been campaigning against the Grahame Park closure, said: "No government is going to pay money into a bottomless pit. The Post Office needs to get its act together and be more efficient.

"But it also means recognition within the Post Office that it provides a vital service. The Post Office is trying to change and it is offering new services. They are saying that many post offices are not financially viable but there are certain circumstances where a post office is so vital that it has to be kept going. This Grahame Park is such a case."

Stephen Timms, Minister of State for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services, has pledged not to close sub-post offices in urban deprived areas as long as there were no reasonable alternatives within a half a mile (except, he added, 'in exceptional circumstances' a term which has yet to be defined). But in an attempt to speed up cuts, this guideline has not always been adhered to.

The Grahame Park branch, for example, is likely to fall uncomfortably under the urban and deprived' category but, despite pleas from Postwatch, the independent board which promotes the interests of users of postal services, the site seems set to close.

With only 1.5 per cent of proposed closures having received reprieves, the figures do not speak volumes for the merits of consultation.

According to Postwatch, there are a number of points which should be raised by those who wish to campaign against the closure of their local branch: accessibility of nearby post offices; transport links; customer services provision at nearby sub-post offices, including disabled access, facilities and product availability; and ability of nearby post offices to handle increased customer numbers with the necessary counter positioning.

A spokesperson for Postwatch said: "Postwatch recognises that post offices in urban deprived areas are especially important to their customers.

"We will examine any proposals in these areas very carefully and will campaign against a closure if it leaves local people without access to postal services."