Twenty four post offices face the axe across Birmingham as part of a closure programme.
The hit list - with the branches and areas affected printed below - hammers home the full extent of the cuts across Birmingham.
As many as 60 branches throughout the West Midlands will be identified in a more detailed regional and national list due also to be unveiled tomorrow.
But documents obtained in advance of the Post Office Limited statement show that branches in all four corners of the city and some in the centre will go.
Post Office Ltd says the closures are needed because of falling customer numbers and the increasing use of the internet to access services like television licences and car tax renewal.
But the news is opposed by customers who say they will have to travel miles to pay their bills, collect pensions and send or pick up parcels.
Mike Thompson, a regular customer at Robin Hood post office in Hall Green, which is destined for the chop, summed up the anger among users when he said: “I’m always in a queue so how can they say these post offices aren’t used enough?
“I’m amazed they’re shutting this one because it’s always really busy.”
The move is part of a nationwide round of cuts which will see one in six branches close their doors, with others in Coventry and Warwickshire also expected to be hit.
Critics point out that local post office branches still provide a vital lifeline for millions of people, including pensioners who do not use the internet. Officially, tomorrow’s announcement will begin a consultation which continues until August 4.
But Trade Minister Pat McFadden (Lab, Wolverhampton South East), the Minister responsible for post offices, admitted during a House of Commons debate that decisions had already been made and could not be reversed.
He said: “The consultation is about the how rather than the whether.”
The Post Office network has lost four million customers over the past two years and makes a loss of £3.5 million a week. It currently receives a subsidy of £150 million each year from taxpayers. But opponents of the closure programme warn that post offices play an important role in the community, and should not be judged solely on financial terms.
The closures are likely to cause a major headache for the Government, as Conservatives and Liberal Democrat councillors and general election candidates will try to blame Labour for the cuts.
Last week week, Jim Reeves, Communication Workers Union official for the Midlands, called on the Government to prop up the “essential public service” with new cash investment rather than wield the axe on one in six offices.
