By the end of the year there will be just over 11,500 post offices left in Britain. Twenty years ago there were nearly double that amount at 21,100.

To many people, particularly those left without a local post office, the decline of the network is the most visible evidence of more sweeping changes that have been hitting Royal Mail.

The public has not taken the axing of one in two post offices over 20 years without a fight. The latest round of 2,500 closures, which is nearing its completion, has triggered a storm of protests, both from spontaneous local community campaigns and from local Conservative Party petitions.

It began a regional roll out in January and will finish the last set of consultations at the end of next month in Herefordshire, the West Midlands and Worcestershire.

The protests have been largely provoked because, unlike the last round of closures four years ago, these have been compulsory rather than voluntary. To inner-city post office users the rationale for closure has seemed obscure at best. Busy, profitable post offices that help to support other activities such as shops or newsagents have been earmarked for closure. The consultation process has been similarly frustrating with just six weeks for public debate from the announcement of a closure to its confirmation.

The network of small post offices, as opposed to the 500-plus larger, high-street offices, are franchised businesses mainly run by individuals or families. But their costs have proved difficult for Royal Mail because of changes in the workload at the offices.

Business dropped dramatically several years ago when the Government began to phase out the payment of benefits in cash at post offices. It switched to direct payment in to recipients' bank accounts or via the Post Office card account, a no-frills bank account. The contract for the card account was given to Royal Mail but it is about to be renewed after going to tender. Sub postmasters fear the decimation of the highly shrunken network if the contract is not awarded again to Royal Mail and instead goes to a rival bidder, such as Paypoint.

Critics of Royal Mail's handling of the closure programmes say that it is not just the loss of benefits business that led to the erosion of the network but an unimaginative range of services and tardiness in adapting to the changing world of communications.

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