THE end is near for a group of four Basingstoke post offices facing the axe, with two set to close this week and another following within a fortnight.

In December, Post Office Ltd announced plans to close its branches in Queens Road in Brookvale, Kings Road in South Ham, Vyne Road in South View, and Worting Road in Worting. This was despite strong local opposition, including a 1,000-signature petition to save the Kings Road site.

The Queens Road branch was the first post office to go, closing its doors for the last time on Tuesday, February 1, and it will soon be followed by the Kings Road branch, which closes tomorrow.

Bopari Jaspir, Queens Road postmaster, was disappointed to see the office close, but admitted the business had been in a spiral of decline.

He said: "It's very sad that the post office is closing. I've been here for more than 18 years and a lot of the older customers are very disappointed we're closing too.

"I'd say 90 per cent of the people who come in are more like friends than customers. This is a very close-knit area - the atmosphere is more like a village.

"The way it's going, it would be very difficult, almost impossible in fact, to keep the post office open, because the Government are doing things like paying pensions straight into bank accounts, and that takes away a lot of our custom. We tried to hold on but, in the end, it was too difficult."

The picture is the same at the Kings Road site - customers are upset about seeing their post office close, but there are too few of them to keep it going.

Postmistress Anne Machin said: "Obviously, we're a bit disappointed because we didn't expect it when we first started, but it's just not viable to keep the office open any more.

"The customers are sad and so are we, but we'll just keep working as normal until we close. This wasn't a sudden move. Our trade had been dropping off long before the Post Office said they might close us down."

The Vyne Road office is due to close on February 16. However, South View Stores, which hosts the post office, will remain open.

Vee Rajapakeerathan, postmistress for Vyne Road, said: "We're already losing customers fast, so there's no point in me running a business without money coming in. The shop will be staying open though. A lot of people seem to think we might be closing and people have even asked when we are shutting, but we'll be staying open."

The Worting Road post office is still due to close, but a stay of execution has been granted while work is carried out on the Kempshott branch in February.