CAMPAIGNS are being launched to save several post offices from closure.

The Post Office has revealed that two offices in the Durham area, in Marshall Terrace, Gilesgate Moor, and in Front Street, Nevilles Cross, are among 11 across the county that are facing the axe in November.

The list also includes branches at Masefield Close, East Stanley, Hollyhill Gardens, South Stanley, and Durham Road, Blackhill.

The Post Office's national urban network reinvention programme will lead to the closure of what it considers to be unviable branches, following the introduction of benefit payments to bank accounts. It has already led to 53 closures in the North-East.

In Durham, Liberal Democrat councillors are urging customers to back their campaign to save the threatened branches by signing petitions.

Council cabinet member Carol Woods, who is her party's parliamentary candidate for the city, said: "It is an erosion of community facilities.''

She said the proposed closures would particularly hit the elderly. "We have lots of problems with anti-social behaviour and deprivation. If we were able to keep lots of facilities within the community and build the community, we would have fewer problems as a result,'' she said.

Labour Durham county councillor Peter Thompson, who lives in the area, said: "We will be opposing the closure - Post Offices are meeting places and the loss of that social interaction can't be good for a community.''

North Durham Labour MP Kevan Jones, whose constituency includes Stanley, said: "I have written to the Post Office to say I am opposed to it.

"The East Stanley one is relied upon by large numbers of elderly people. To expect them to travel into Stanley town centre for basic postal services is unacceptable."

The regional arm of the postal watchdog Postwatch is also urging people to tell it how the proposed closures will affect them.

A spokeswoman said the organisation supported the theory of the Post Office's programme but added: "We will oppose them when there is significant opposition to it or we realise that closure would cause problems in the community.'' Consultation on the proposals ends on Monday, September 27. People can contact Postwatch on 08456 013265 or write to Post Office Closures, Freepost, Postwatch