SUB postmasters Christine Donnelly and Martin Barratt, from the Great Milton and Bampton post offices, were joining others from around the country today in a protest calling on the Government to protect post offices and the services they offer.

Ms Donnelly said: "It is a part of our culture and people won't realise what they have got until it's gone.

"I think post offices do matter and it is important the Government does realise that and doesn't just look at the pounds and pence."

A Government subsidy of £150m for the cost of running post offices ends in 2008. Mr Barratt said that out of the 15,000 rural post offices in the UK, it is estimated Royal Mail will only be able to afford to run 4,000.

The Bampton sub-postmaster, who has had 800 signatures from his customers, said: "We want the Government to provide a unified policy on the future of the rural post office network and they need to take into account the social aspects as well as the economical aspects of the post office.

"We have a high proportion of elderly people in this country and the Government is ignoring their needs. We are in a computer age and I understand that, but this interim period where some people are not aware of how the Internet works."

He referred to the recent introduction of 'smart stamps' - a bar code which people can pay for on the Internet and print it out on to an envelope instead of using the traditional stick-on stamp.

"The stamps are good for people using eBay - and they have done a lot for the post office - but if you told my 86-year-old lady she has to use the Internet to do her stamp, she would sit down and cry."

Speakers from Help the Aged, the Women's Institute and Postcomm, the independent postal regulator, will be addressing the crowd at Westminster.