FOUR post offices in West Oxfordshire will be closed despite thousands of protests from customers, it has been confirmed.
The post offices doomed to closure, including one in West End, Witney, are among 22 Oxfordshire post office branches that will be phased out from June.
Another five post offices in West Oxfordshire will be replaced by 'outreach solutions' - possibly much reduced opening hours, or a van pick-up, the Witney Gazette can reveal.
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An announcement at 10am on Tuesday by Post Office confirmed the closure of the post offices, which had all been subject to a six-week public consultation period on their futures.
The 22 were among 2,500 branches across the UK the Post Office wanted to axe to save £4m.
After the scheme was revealed, more than 6,000 customers signed a campaign petition protesting at plans to close the branches.
Their petition and 150 separate letters were taken to 10 Downing Street by the Witney Gazette's sister paper, the Oxford Mail.
Another 11,000 people signed a petition against the closures, which was forwarded to Post Office managers, and high-profile figures, including Conservative Party leader and Witney MP David Cameron, had also backed the campaign.
The announcement means branches in West End, in Witney, Stanmore Crescent, in Carterton, Park Road, in Combe, and Wootton, in Woodstock, will be shut.
Five other post offices, in Horseshoe Lane, in Chadlington, The Green, in Enstone, Great Rollright, in Chipping Norton, The Green, in Great Tew, and
Medcroft Road, in Tackley, will be replaced by 'outreach solutions' - details of which are still waiting to be finalised.
Melanie Kelly, sub-postmistress at the Stanmore Crescent post office, said: "I am pretty disgusted - I thought we stood a chance of staying open.
"We had more than 2,000 signatures on petitions, and 35 letters go as well.
"The customers are very upset and quite annoyed. A lot of my pensioners that come in are upset. We get a lot of pensioners here, and they are the ones I feel sorry for."
Mark Partington, Post Office's network development manager for Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, said: "These are difficult decisions, which have not been taken lightly.
"We have considered very carefully all the comments made during the public consultation.
"We believe that the amended plan announced on Tuesday offers our customers across Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the Government's minimum access criteria and the other factors it has asked us to consider."
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