SWANAGE residents are being urged to make their voices heard over the planned closure of one of the town's post offices.

The Ballard Estate post office in Redcliffe Road has been earmarked for closure and could shut in November.

The post office is one of only three serving residents in Swanage and its closure would leave the north end of the town without a post office.

Instead, residents would have to travel into town to use the main post office in Kings Road or the one in Herston, which is a mile outside the town centre.

The post office is earmarked for closure under Post Office Ltd's "urban network reinvention" programme, which will see 3,000 post offices close nationwide.

Gary Hepburn, regional secretary of the independent consumer watchdog Postwatch in the south and west, said the sub-postmaster had volunteered to take a severance package offered by the Government.

But he said the post office could still be saved if customers provided them with valid arguments against its closure.

"It's gone to public consultation but its closure is not a foregone conclusion," he said.

"I wouldn't want to raise people's expectations because the majority of post offices earmarked for closure do close but if there are any reasons why this one shouldn't then we want to hear about it.

Comments should be sent to Postwatch South and West, Egdon Hall, Lynch Lane, Weymouth, DT4 9DN or phone 08456 013265.

Ballard Estate post office in Swanage is just one of many across the region that Post Office Ltd have already closed or earmarked for closure.

Poole has taken the brunt of the closures, with post offices in Hamworthy, Sterte Road, Bourne Valley, Hillbourne and Heatherlands all shut under the urban network reinvention programme.

In Christchurch, a petition containing more than 1,000 signatures could not save the Stanpit post office and the Town Common sub-post office soon followed suit.

And just a fortnight ago, it was revealed that the Leigh Park post office in Wimborne is also set to close.