More post office closures could be unveiled in 2008

Many have received Welsh assembly government grants of up to �50,000 to spend on improving their businesses.

The money was awarded on the condition that the recipient runs the post office for five years.

But government subsidies to keep them open are only secure until 2008 and, if post offices are closed, grants may have to be paid back.

The assembly government said that the money it is offering should help put the post offices in a strong position when their futures are reconsidered in 2008.

A statement said: "Those businesses should be in a position in 2008 to demonstrate - to Post Office Ltd or whoever - that they are strong, viable concerns with the ability to run long after 2008."

It's almost like winning the lottery and losing the ticket - that's how it feels Jenny Griffith

It is not clear if the assembly government would actually call in the debt if a post office was forced to close, but some postmasters fear it is just too risky to accept.

One of these is Allan Griffith, who has been running the post office at Llandinam, Montgomeryshire, for three years and is worried he cannot take a grant of �45,000.

"The original concept by the Welsh assembly government was excellent," he said.

"It is all about preserving the future existence of sub-post offices in isolated rural areas - as a concept, it couldn't be better."

But Mr Griffith said that, if he got the refurbishment work completed at the start of next year, he could not be sure he would still be open in 2010.

"If we were in a position where we were forced to close, we wouldn't be earning, our business would be gone and we would be in a position where we would have to repay an awful lot of money."

Lembit Opik says postmasters should not be forced to gamble

His wife Jenny said they were very upset they could not accept the money.

"It's almost like winning the lottery and losing the ticket - that's how it feels."

Mr Griffith added it was "most strange" that the assembly government was "making it very difficult to accept this money".

Mr Griffith's MP Lembit Opik called for a break clause to help postmasters.

"He [Mr Griffith] basically has to play Russian roulette with his finances on something he has no control over," he said.

"There is an absence of joined-up thinking between Westminster and Cardiff.

"If Labour really did think abou it, they would not put Mr Griffith in a position where he would have to gamble."

The Welsh assembly government said that the large majority of post offices who have been offered the money "have already accepted assistance, and most of the rest are in the process of doing so".