HOUSEHOLDERS in a group of West Dorset villages fear hundreds of elderly people could be forced to pay a massive premium on their electricity bills - or be left stranded without power.

When the Royal Mail stops recharging electricity keys at post offices at the end of this month, hundreds of villagers relying on key meters living near the Londis shop in Crossways, near Dorchester, will be affected.

Villagers say that the post office is sited near elderly care homes in an area of high unemployment where many people have key meters. But now the elderly and people with children will be forced to walk to the grocery store on the busy main road through the village, or pay a £1.15 premium to make a payment at the post office.

Many pensioners choose to pay £5 off their bills weekly - and paying into a book would increase the payments by more than 20 per cent to £6.15.

Campaigners have collected more than 300 signatures in a few weeks after finding out that the post office in Mount Skippett Way is stopping the service.

The Royal Mail has had to stop the service after the South West Electricity Board changed the machinery for charging the keys. Post offices, which offer a bill payment service in direct competition to the key charging service, felt it was not worth buying up the new machines and now the service will only be offered where there is a Powerpoint machine.

Mum Patricia Turner, 31, of Hope Close, who has been collecting signatures for a petition against the move, said: "At the moment I can walk my grandmother to the shop to recharge her electric key but when the service goes I will have to take her in a wheelchair on an hour's walk to the main road and back.

"The road is so dangerous - a man was hit by a car only the other week along that road - and people do not want to transfer their loyalty to another shop."

Southern Electric spokes-man Julian Reeves said: "We have now changed our agency and have signed to Power-point where customers can charge their keys at a new site in Warmwell Road at the Tree Stores. It is very close to the existing site and has advantages for customers because it is open until 7.30pm six days a week and until 6pm on Sundays.

"Another great advantage of Powerpoint is that all the other utilities use it.

"We think it makes life a lot easier for customers."