There will be plenty of sadness - and no doubt plenty of anger - when the first wave of post office closures takes place in Oxfordshire.

It is shocking that the Government should stand by and do nothing to prevent what amounts to the decimation of the post office network in many areas.

All the hard work and effort customers put in to organise petitions in an attempt to stave off the closures amounted to nothing.

In Oxfordshire, the protests were simply brushed aside and all 22 post offices earmarked for closure will be axed.

Now we shall see at first hand the extent of the hardship communities will suffer, as 2,500 offices nationwide disappear.

Ministers and Post Office bosses, of course, will see none of it, tucked away in their swanky London offices, oblivious to the inconvenience they are causing.

Even those communities whose post offices have not yet come under threat, should not sit back.

Although the Government appears to want to keep the network at 11,500 branches, a committee of MPs has given a stark warning that 4,000 more could be closed in future.

Another dose of heartache may be just around the corner for many more communities.