More than 4,670 people have already put pen to paper in a bid to stave off a programme of post office closures across the county.

The action is in response to a Government-backed cost-cutting exercise to shut 22 of Oxfordshire's sub post offices and limit the opening hours of five others.

The Oxford Mail has received 120 comment coupons in defence of the proposed closures and one MP, Wantage's Ed Vaizey, has collected more than 250 letters.

The branches at Villiers Road, Bicester; Orchard Way, Banbury; and Grandpont, Oxford, have each tallied up more than 700 signatures.

Public meetings have also been held and some customers have measured the exact distance to their nearest branch in a bid to change management minds.

In the village of Stanton St John, east of Oxford, parish councillors are giving residents guidance on writing letters to Post Office Ltd and a community protest is planned.

At the village's under-threat branch, shop owner Mollie Ingrey said: "People have seen the post offices in Horton-cum-Studley, Beckley and other villages close, and they do not want this one to be the last to go.

"It will just kill the community completely. This is like a little centre of the universe for them."