CRAVEN could lose more 27 of its 32 rural post offices when the Government announces the results of its 12-week consultation period, which is due to end today.

Nationally, around 2,500 urban and rural post offices could be closed, and pubs, village halls and mobile units could take over their role in remote rural villages.

A review of the national post office network revealed too many branches were competing for the same customers.

On average, the 800 smallest post offices served just 16 people a week at a cost to the taxpayer of £17 per visit, and more than half the rural network has fewer than 500 customers each week.

Last year the post office lost £4 million a week.

Ronnie Ingham, who runs the Malham Village Shop and Community Post Office, believes his business will be among the list of closures.

He told the Herald: "I read in an article that some places with less than 100 customers a week will be closed. I won't have 100 customers in a month."

But Mr Ingham is not sure it will make any difference to villagers.

"To be honest, I do not like to say this, but I don't think anybody will really suffer. People all say they do not want the post office to close, but they never use it," he said.

Sub postmistress at Hebden, Linda Wilson, has been running the village post office for 24 years and agrees the business is no longer profitable.

She said: "We are probably very heavily subsidised."

She pointed out that the loss of business from pensions and TV licences had been a big blow for small rural post offices: "I sold 40 licences a year so that's another thing that's gone," she said.

Hebden is only two miles from Grassington, which has the largest post office in Upper Wharfedale.

Government guidelines state 95 per cent of the rural population should be within three miles of a post office, which means the Hebden office could close. In remote areas, the criteria states 95 per cent of the population should be within six miles of a post office.

Craven District Council has estimated that, in the worst case scenario, this means 27 of the district's 32 post offices could close. Once a post office has been earmarked for closure, there will be a six-week consultation period to consider objections and alternatives.

But County councillor Shelagh Marshall feels this is not long enough.

"I would like the period to be at least three months and I would like to see the county council playing an active role in making the case," she said. She added that the Government needed to consider not just how far a post office was from someone, but also how accessible it was.

She said: "When we lost the post office in Embsay for several months last year, it cost one lady £8 to draw her pension. She could have caught the Little Red Bus to Skipton, but that meant she would have to spend two hours there. She has bad arthritis and can't stand for that long, so she had to get a taxi which took her straight there and back."

This is a problem likely to affect many elderly people in rural areas who find it difficult to use public transport.

Age Concern believes the loss of village post offices will leave elderly people not only cut off from services, but also isolated from the community.

Christine Broadhead, chief officer of Age Concern North Craven, explained: "For a lot of elderly people it's about seeing a friendly face. It might be the only person they speak to all day."

Sharon Latta, sub postmistress at Cross Hills, agrees elderly people would suffer. She said: "We give a lot of help to the pensioners who come in here. They come to us to get their mail read. Even if they have family they don't always want them to read their letters. They trust us because most people in post offices have been there a long time."

And she warned: "I think everybody thinks we are safe from closure. People don't realise the impact something like buying car tax on the internet will have on their local post office. If they did, I think they would use it more because one day they might find they need it and it won't be there."