The members of Arun District Council's cabinet submitted their formal response to the organisation's plans to close five branches around Bognor Regis.

The comments were e-mailed just before the midnight deadline for consultations to end. Post Office Ltd will decide next month which of the branches will go. Closures will take place after the end of May.

Arun leader Cllr Gill Brown said axing any of the branches – South Bersted, Aldwick in Aldwick Street, Craigweil in Barrack Lane and Station Road and Hawthorn Road in Bognor – would damage their surrounding area.

"The proposed programme of closures is a complete scandal and totally unacceptable, which is why we are going to do as much as we can to stop it.

"We are not simply appealing to the Post Office on the strength of feeling. We are presenting them with facts which cannot be ignored.

"Three of the post offices earmarked for closure sit right in the middle of the most deprived areas of Bognor Regis, which is also one of the most deprived areas of West Sussex.

"Close to 40 per cent of residents in Aldwick and Craigweil are over 65 and more than five per cent over 85. Yet the Post Office Ltd is proposed to close the offices here.

"This means that elderly and disadvantaged people, who are core customers of the post office, will suffer even more if these offices are closed."

She stated: "Disabled people and those with mobility problems will also suffer, not only from having to travel further.

"But also from the extra queuing at already oversubscribed alternative offices. What action will Post Office Ltd be taking to tackle these problems?

"We just cannot afford to see more of these valuable local resources closed."

The population numbers used to justify the closure proposals were outdated, she added, because they were based on the 2001 census.

Arun's comments have joined the 4,500 responses which Post Office Ltd had received by last Thursday to its closure programme throughout Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex in which the Bognor branches were included.

However, the company was unwilling to break down that number to specific towns or branches.

As well as the protest, the district council has urged Postwatch to request a formal review of the proposals.

The councillors will also contact West Sussex County Council leader Cllr Henry Smith to see if he was willing for the authority to save the post offices.
But Cllr Smith said the county would be unable to afford such as a move. However, the county council was looking to see if post offices could be opened in community facilities such as libraries.