The West Street post office is one of the branches proposed for closure in a review announced on Tuesday.

Customers have six weeks to fill in consultation forms and register their views, but the branch may shut down as early as September.

Customers and neighbours fear the area will lose a valuable resource.

Mike Chambers has lived next door to the West Street post office for 28 years. The 65-year-old retired deputy headteacher believes the cuts will affect those who need the post office the most.

He said: “I see a huge number of people here who meet their friends at the post office. It makes it part of the community.

“Closing it is incredibly short-sighted. We are an ageing population and the number of elderly people in Warwick is increasing. This is writing off a disadvantaged section of the community

“Post offices are part of the national infrastructure. Once you lose them, they are gone forever.”

Mary Harris, a retired civil servant, of Lakin Road, has used the branch since the Smith Street and Millers Road offices closed.

She said: “It is ridiculous the way they are closing them. Soon we will only have the one post office in Warwick.

“I’m pretty fit but there are many people who aren’t. It is very hard for some people to go into town. The government doesn’t take that into account.”

Warwick Chamber of Trade chairman Sue Butcher runs Torry’s hardware store, also in the street.

She said: “There are quite a lot of older people who live down here who are going to find it very difficult to make the extra trip up into town, There will be a loss to the community.”

The closure is not a surprise - the branch was identified in a map accidentally posted on the post office website in December 2007.

Sikhvinder Sandhar and her husband Hardev have run the branch for the past eight years and admit it is no longer viable as a business. They blame the loss of services such as paying for television licences and utility bills for a drop in trade.

Mrs Sandhar said: “When we took over eight years ago, we paid out about 700 pensions, now we are doing 120. That is purely based on pensions. There are lots of other transactions we can’t carry out any more.”

Warwick and Leamington MP James Plaskitt believes the Post Office should justify its closures to the people affected.

And the Labour minister has denied voting for the closures. He says he voted against a Conservative amendment to suspend the closure plan because it offered no alternative.

He feels savings are justified, but that there is still a large subsidy. With only two proposed closures, Mr Plaskitt feels his constituency has fared comparatively well. He has asked Post Office to hold public meetings in Warwick and Milverton.

Mr Plaskitt said: “They should come to the communities affected and they should put their case for the reasons the post offices should close.

“The consultation isn’t a ritual, it’s a meaningful consultation.