THE majority of Oxfordshire's doomed post offices will shut by the middle of next week.

Six of the county's 22 branches earmarked for closure will send out their last post on Thursday, with ten more following suit within the next seven days.

The list of closure dates reveals how quickly the company is shutting down the branches - less than a month after the announcement was made.

At Iffley Post Office, sub-postmistress Dian Harvey said the branch's closure, on Wednesday, June 11, would be a sad day for the community.

She said: "I'm feeling very emotional. I'm very upset and I feel sad for the people who aren't going to be able to get to other branches.

"The elderly customers are going to have to get sons, daughters or carers to take them to other post offices, but what happens to those who have nobody?

"The customers are feeling quite gobsmacked, I think.

"A lady who has a young son recently came in and said post office life as we know it just won't exist when he has grown up.

"We all grew up with the post office as a community centre, and that just will not be there for this younger generation."

The post office in Fyfield will be one of the first in Oxfordshire to close its doors, when time is called on sub-postmaster Peter Rayner's 22-year career on Thursday.

He said: "The day will be tinged with sadness but I can understand the reasons why we're closing. The volume of business just isn't there any more. The closure of the post office has had a huge impact on the shop and in future the shop will be opening on a limited basis."

At Begbroke, sub-postmaster Bob Perkin, who has served the community for seven years, said he also feared for the future of his general store, alongside the A44.

He said: "We have known from day one 18 months ago that this was likely to happen, so it hasn't come as a great shock.

"It will be sad to close the post office, because we really don't know what impact it will have on the rest of our business.

"There will be a few months of not knowing whether it will survive and we will have to carry on in the hope that it can."

Post Office spokesman Jane Thomas said the flurry of closures, just weeks after confirmation the axe would fall, was not part of a specific plan.

She said: "It came down to personal choice. It was a case of coming up with a timescale that suited postmasters and their future prospects.

"We asked for an indication, whether they preferred to close within a month or within three. It has just happened that most people have chosen one month."

But at Stanmore Crescent Post Office, in Carterton, sub-postmistress Melanie Kelly said she had yet to hear when it would shut.

She said: "We have heard nothing - no dates, no communication. One of my customers even came in and said she thought we had been saved, but we just don't know."

Post Office spokesman Richard Hall said: "We're now finalising the exact closure date for Stanmore Crescent."

MPs fear further postal cuts

MORE of Oxfordshire's post offices could close if the fears of MPs and experts are realised - but local postmasters say we won't be the worst-hit county.

In a report released yesterday, MPs on the House of Commons business and enterprise select committee, warned 4,000 extra branches - on top of the 2,500 already doomed - could be axed nationwide.

The committee said it welcomed Government plans to keep 11,500 outlets open between now and 2011, but raised concerns Post Office Ltd did not believe they could set a minimum number of branches.

Christine Donnelly, the secretary of the Bicester and Oxford branch of National Federation of Sub Postmasters, said the outlook was mixed.

Mrs Donnelly, who has been the sub-postmistress in Great Milton for 11 years, said: "Much of Oxfordshire, although not all of it, is fairly well-off and I think it will be areas they call urban deprived, such as in the North East and North West, that will come out worse.

"In the future, Post Office will become more than just post offices. Every retailer in the country is going to the internet and the post office will be in a very different situation on the ground and the network will become something we're not used to.

"I think stand-alone branches will suffer the most, and the best way to preserve post offices may be to combine them with other businesses."