Those present agreed the proposals to close one in three post office branches around Bognor were flawed.

They voted in favour of telling Post Office Ltd its plans failed to take into account the large number of elderly people, the number of those without cars, the effect on small businesses, parking restrictions around the surviving branches and the harm to the environment of people being forced to drive to those alternatives.

Mr Gibb said Post Office Ltd expected to save £18,000 a year from each closed branch. But he said the isolation which some people would experience from the closures would cost far more in eventual social services care.

Aldwick parish councillor Jill Ostler said Craigweil Post Office was the main contact point with the rest of the world for many of the residents in the isolated area of Aldwick – nearly two miles from the nearest surviving branch.

Bognor west and Aldwick county councillor Robin Brown urged protesters to battle on. "We have got to go on fighting to keep all the post offices open. We might win in the end," he said.