COMMUNITIES in Ipswich are today pulling together to save their post offices with petitions being collected in all four corners of the town.The response comes after the Post Office announced proposals to close six post offices last month.

COMMUNITIES in Ipswich are today pulling together to save their post offices with petitions being collected in all four corners of the town.

The response comes after the Post Office announced proposals to close six post offices last month.

The fate of the branches in Barrack Lane, Austin Street, Felixstowe Road, Ruskin Road, Spring Road and Ulster Avenue is not yet decided and residents are currently rallying together to try and keep them open.

The latest petition, which has around 700 signatures, has been raised in the Whitehouse area by ward councillor Trevor Payne.

He fears that the closure of the Ulster Avenue post office in the area's declining shopping parade will have a negative impact both on elderly residents and on the shops.

He said: "It's a valuable asset to the area. There are a lot of elderly people concerned about losing it. The shopping parade goes dead when another shop is taken away.

"We are still waiting for some signatures and are anticipating about 800."

The petition is to be presented to a post office representative next week as the period of consultation draws to a close on March 30.

In a public meeting on Tuesday, the head of the Post office in the Eastern region defended the proposals to close some offices as it made economic sense

Mr Payne said: "I do understand the economics of it. The postmaster has told me that it is not economically viable but they should be prepared to subsidise it.

"It is mainly elderly people and young mothers who will be affected but there is support from everyone.

"It is inconvenient and the alternatives are too far away.

"People manage to walk there and back home now and see it as a form of exercise rather than an endurance test which is what it will become. We have had backing in great strength.."

N What do you think about possible post office closures? Write in to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk or visit the forum at www.eveningstar.co.uk

N More than 600 signatures have been collecting in opposition to the possible closure of the Barrack Lane post office. Residents at Cumberland Towers in Norwich Road organised the petition. Many of its 61 elderly residents rely on the post office to withdraw their pensions.

N Rex Chittock 71 and Eric Chisnall 72 toured a number of streets in east Ipswich with a petition against the closure of the Felixstowe Road, Ruskin Road and Spring Road branches. They collected more than 1,200 signatures from Grove Lane to Foxhall Road and left petitions in shops to be signed.

N A petition has also been set up in Austin Street opposing the closure of the Wherstead Road post office.