A PENSIONERS group has launched a campaign to keep a post office open.

The Neville Parade branch office in Newton Aycliffe is one of 11 in County Durham and Darlington which could be permanently closed from November.

The Post Office say the closures are necessary because of falling customer number and increased running costs.

The Newton Aycliffe branch under threat is opposite the Neville Community Centre, the base for the Friends of Senior Citizens' charity, which is determined to fight the proposal.

Group founder Peter Beaty has already written to Tony Blair to ask for his support. There are also plans to stage an all-day protest outside the branch on Friday next week, when customers will be asked to sign a petition.

The Post Office says customers will be able to use either of the town's two other branches, in the town centre and at Simpasture Gate, but Mr Beaty says that would cause problems for many people.

He said: "It would mean that frail, elderly people, some of them blind and disabled, would have to make their way to the town centre post office and back.

"I'd like to invite the people who are proposing this to come out on a wet, windy, cold day and imagine what it would be like for their grandmother to do that journey."

He said: "The town centre post office is not as friendly as the little branch at Neville Parade, which is a family venture where they have time to chat to elderly people. They would miss that."

Post offices under threat in Darlington are at Eastbourne Road, Salisbury Terrace, Hollyhurst Road and Victoria Road. A Post Office spokesman said many urban offices were struggling to survive because there were too many branches for the amount of business.

A six-week consultation period has been launched. Customers can make their views known to consumer watchdog Postwatch on 0845 6013265, or write to Post Office closures, Freepost, Postwatch.