JUST when they thought it couldn't get much worse. Days before a massive consultation on the future of 12 of the region's urban post offices ends, those fighting to keep vital community services have been rocked by yet another bombshell.

Six major Post Office-owned branches - known as Crown branches - across our communities could be forced to undergo radical change or even face closure.

The landmark branches under threat include the main office in Southampton's High Street as well as the biggest ones in Shirley, Winchester, Eastleigh, Romsey and Fareham. The service they provide, however, could be franchised out, offered to local consortiums and even opened inside supermarkets.

The six are part of 560 branches nationwide which face the threat of closure or change. Bosses at the Royal Mail believe at least half of this number will be reformed because collectively they made a loss of £70m in the last year.

It's the latest blow to hundreds of people fighting to keep local services. Already, smaller branches across the area are facing the axe because not enough people use them.

Residents, MPs, union bosses and campaigners for the elderly have all condemned yesterday's announcement.

In Southampton the branches are in the city's High Street and in Shirley Avenue, Shirley.

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham said: "It would be completely unacceptable to lose the service. I would prefer these branches remained as Crown offices but if they don't want to do that I think it's essential that people still have these services."

In Romsey the branch is in Church Street. MP Sandra Gidley said she would fight the closures,

She added: "Romsey Post Office provides an invaluable service to the community and must stay open. If it does close then people will have further to travel and will not have local access to services such as renewal of car tax and passport checking.

"It is pie in the sky to believe that supermarkets and other large concerns will want to take over these businesses when all the evidence is to the contrary. "

In Winchester the Middle Brook Street office is under threat.

City council leader Sheila Campbell said she was extremely concerned: "A lot of people pay their bills through the post office. Many people rely on it for foreign exchange and getting their pensions. The service has to be continued somewhere."

Eastleigh's High Street branch could be affected.

Councillor Peter Luffman said the news was a threat to the survival of the town centre. He said: "It would be a major shock and major inconvenience to the town centre's purpose to survive."

Fareham's West Street office may be forced to close. Council leader Sean Woodward, said: "You could see some post offices where trade clearly wasn't as high as it might have been, but I have never not queued in Fareham Post Office."

Some of the worst hit by the possible changes will be the elderly.

Neil Duncan-Jordan, at the Wessex Pensioners' Convention, said the services offered by post offices are invaluable. We argue that post offices are much more than places to buy stamps and collect pension money.

"For a lot of older people it is true that post offices provide an unofficial social network.

"All of this will be lost. If you bank in the high street the person behind the counter doesn't know you from Adam.

"The implication is that people won't see as many friends, they won't keep in touch with as many people and they will be isolated. The results of closures could be terrible."

Ray Pearce, spokesman for the Wessex South Central branch of the Communications Workers' Union, represents Royal Mail and Post Office workers.

He said: "We are not feeling very happy about this latest news. It is a shut down of the network as far as we are concerned.

"Ultimately, this could have a bearing on the jobs of Royal Mail workers.

"This has been happening slowly for years. The work that is done in counters these days has been greatly diminished with the changes in pensions for example. This news doesn't really surprise me."

Gary Hepburn at Postwatch South and West, the independent Post Office watchdog, said he was "surprised" by the news.

Mr Hepburn said: "It is early days and we don't know which branches are going to be affected. As a user watchdog we will be looking at these proposals and at the effects on customers and we will be making sure that the quality of post office services are kept in high streets."

A Post Office spokesman said that "no decision" had yet been reached about the future of the post offices.

He said: "These offices lost more than £70m last year and we know that we can't sustain these sort of losses in the future.That's why we've been talking to everyone involved - including our people and our trade unions.

"It is too soon to speculate about closures. We want to explore all the options, including different ways of managing offices - through partnerships, for example - if it is the best way to make offices viable and maintain the service our customers want.

"Post offices, whether on the high street or in local communities, face a challenging future as traditional forms of income from benefit payments disappear. Main post office branches remain a vital part of our network.

"We've seen notable successes - post office branches are the UK's number one choice for foreign currency, for example. The success of these products will, in the end, determine the number of main branches it is viable to run."

WHAT do you think? Call Sarah Gomme on 023 8042 4500 or e-mail her using the link above.