POSTMASTERS are facing an anxious wait to find out whether or not their branches are being earmarked for closure.

Post Office staff in villages and towns across Gloucestershire were expected to find out by letter this week if they are to shut.

Last year the Post Office announced that it would be closing 2,500 of its branches across the country.

It claimed the network was not financially viable, with losses in the region of £3 million a week.

Postal staff in the county were due to be told of their fate two weeks before the official announcement on February 5, that will signal the start of a six week public consultation.

Residents in Kingswood, North Nibley, Uley, Sharpness, Slimbridge, Cam, Wotton-under-Edge and Dursley are all bracing themselves to find out whether or not they will lose their local Post Office, with some communities already planning courses of action to take should their Post Office be earmarked for closure.

Cllr David Rockey, chairman of Kingswood Parish Council, said: "This is a vital service in the village and we need to be prepared to do what we can as a council and as a village to save the post office."

Kingswood village has already provisionally booked a public meeting for February 7 should one be needed.

Cllr John Cordwell, Gloucestershire county councillor for Wotton-under-Edge, said he was "very concerned" about the threat to rural services.

He said: "At the very least it would greatly inconvenience villagers; at worst, the declining local public transport service may make the remaining post offices inaccessible to some.

"It could also affect the viability of local shops that currently also run post offices, as customers will go elsewhere."

The Post Office said once the restructuring process is complete, 99 percent of the population will live within three miles of a Post Office and 90 percent within a mile.

A Post Office spokesman said: "Fewer people are using Post Office branches, partly because traditional services, including benefit payments are now available through other means such as the internet or directly through banks.

"The Government has concluded that the shape and size of the overall network of Post Office branches needs to change."

For more information about the Post Office closures visit www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange.