Branches are due to be closed across Reading

The branches in Caversham Park and Lyon Square in Tilehurst were due to close at the end of the day.

Branches in Caversham Road, Oxford Road, Prospect Street and Meadway in Tilehurst are to close later this week.

The Royal Mail says customer demand for the post offices has fallen, but the move has been widely criticised.

The community does not use it - if they did I would still be here Sub-postmaster Nadia Amani

Labour's Reading West MP Martin Salter described the planned closure of the Meadway branch as ill-conceived.

He has written to the minister of state for postal services, Stephen Timms, asking him to intervene and overrule the closures.

Mr Salter said: "Considerable numbers of people in the Tilehurst area now face a journey of more than a mile to their nearest alternative branch.

"I doubt that even with the promised extra counter space that these branches will be able to cope properly with the increase in customers."

Karen Durcan, Thames Valley organiser for the Federation of Small Businesses said: "I am unhappy at the decision of the Post Office to ignore the needs of small businesses in the west Reading area."

Sub-postmaster of the Caversham Park branch, Nadia Amani, said she backed the closure.

She told BBC News Online: "The resources they were putting into smaller offices were not doing the community any justice and were letting the larger branches down.

"Now they can put the money into better facilities.

"The Post Office as an organisation knows what it is doing.