The Coventry Evening Telegraph is one of the latest daily regional newspapers to ask its readers to help “Save Our Post Offices”.

It joins the Western Morning News, the East Anglian Daily Times and a host of other titles fighting Government plans which, they say, would force thousands of sub-post offices into bankruptcy.

The government wants all pension and welfare benefits to be paid directly into claimants’ bank accounts instead of over post office counters.

If the changes go through, sub-post offices will lose up to 60% of their income.

The Telegraph is asking readers to sign forms printed in the paper demanding that the post offices are saved. It will then send them all to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In an editorial, the Telegraph said: “Post offices cannot be regarded solely as business enterprises. In many villages, and often in the suburbs, they provide the only shop and meeting point for locals.

“They are the heart and soul of the community and in threatening their future, the Government will make the lives of the poor and the elderly even more difficult.”

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