Thousands of post offices across the country are set to be closed

The National Consumer Council said in these areas, the closures had reduced services that are already scarce.

The report found post offices were crucial for residents who are often on low incomes or unemployed.

It said those most reliant on them, such as the elderly, were least able to lobby for post offices to stay open.

The impact was felt particularly badly in estates on the outskirts of towns, because there was also a dearth of basic services such as banks and supermarkets.

Some neighbourhoods of acute social need do not seem to have benefited from protection Professor Richard Webber University College London

Nicola O'Reilly, of the National Consumer Council, said: "Protecting vulnerable communities from the impact of post office closures is no simple task.

"People are as important as places in these decisions. It's vital that plans for the next 2,500 closures protect the people who would be hardest hit."

George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub Postmasters - which accepts the closures - said there was simply not enough work for all of the country's branches to stay open.

Mr Thomson said that if some did not close then the "whole edifice would fall".

'Walking away'

He said: "Of course people are upset that post offices are closing, but virtually every postmaster in the UK says that there is not enough work in the network to sustain 14,000 offices.

"Most of those 14,000 offices would just close with sub postmasters handing in their keys and walking away."

A Post Office spokesman said: "The closure programme is designed to ensure that as many people as possible are as near as possible to a branch."

Professor Richard Webber of University College London, who analysed the findings, said: "At a national level, Post Office Ltd has worked with sub-postmasters' preferences to decide which post offices should be closed.

"However, in practice, a consistent pattern is not easy to discern.

"Some neighbourhoods of acute social need do not seem to have benefited from protection and the closure rate is very uneven between similar areas, as well as across different regions of the country."

What are your views on the post office closures? Do you live on an estate where a post office is under threat, or where one has already closed? What impact has it had on the local community?

Your comments:

My local post office closed some years ago and I now have to travel miles to the nearest one. I am disabled and this causes me a few difficulties plus because of the changes to the postal rates and being charged on size as well as weight it means I have to now go to the post office to send larger items.
William Ward, Liverpool, UK

I feel that closing post offices on the basis of financial concerns is missing the point of the postal service. The benefits of a cheap postal service to society as a whole may be intangible, but are very important to a large proportion of our population - unfortunately the accountants now running this country seem to concentrate purely on the 'bottom line', ignoring the social fallout of the closures.
Martin Goldsack, Blackpool, England

Post offices should be there to serve the public in every little town and village. Forget making a profit get down to the basics and start running a decent service. Until a few years ago I got my post at 8am every morning now it arrives at 11am to 12 midday. Come on post office serve the public properly.
David Balderstone, Chorlton, Manchester

The postal service is dying a slow and agonizing death. More and more people are turning to emails and texts for both private and public written communication. And many alternative services now exist for the delivery of parcels. and the recent massive wave of strikes and closures, plus the huge number of services that the post office no longer provides, thus causing great discomfort and difficulties to many elderly people, which in my opinion is a crime, has only served to push the service further under. I am 22, I do not expect the royal mail or the post office to be in existence when I reach middle age.
Daniel, Doncaster UK