MORE than 88 per cent of urban sub-post offices in Hampshire are considering closing down, it emerged today.

According to a Daily Echo poll of 33 post offices in the Southampton, Eastleigh and Winchester areas, 29 have not ruled out taking redundancy.

If the corner street post offices close down, it would affect thousands of people, including the elderly and infirm.

The government has given the go-ahead for £210m to be released to pay off people running post offices in urban areas.

They are seen by many customers as a vital community lifeline, but often struggle to make a profit because of competition.

Unions fear up to 200 sub-post offices in towns and cities across Hampshire could be axed in total.

Consignia - formerly the Royal Mail - wants to streamline because it's losing £1m a day.

Union officials claim the government's redundancy package - worth thousands of pounds - is a "sweetener" that will tempt many sub-post masters and mistresses to call it a day.

John Dudley, at Boyatt Wood sub-post office in Eastleigh, confirmed he would not be closing but understood why many colleagues were thinking about the offer.

He said: "Sub-post masters are not able to make a living. Redundancy is a way out for them."

Post Office chiefs agreed back in March that across the UK 3,000 sub-post offices needed to go if the service was to ever operate in profit, especially once a new system for paying out pensions and benefits comes into play next April.

A spokesman for the Hampshire Branch of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, said: "The money incentive to close looks rather like a sweetener being offered to those thinking about closing as part of the Post Office closure scheme.

"We also believe the majority of our customers don't want this change in the way benefits are paid out either."

Which sub-post offices will actually go has yet to be decided, though Post Office Ltd insist it there will be no forced redundancies, and only where there are several outlets near each other will there be any closures.

THE BRITISH WAY OF LIFE UNDER THREAT - SEE PAGES 2 & 3 OF TODAY'S DAILY ECHO