POST Office bosses in York have backed a national campaign, which they say will protect them from the threat of closure.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters has launched a petition against Government plans to withdraw funding for the Post Office Card Account (POCA). They say the loss of the account will force many branches out of business.

All 14,500 Post Offices in Britain were sent copies of the petition at the end of last week, with the NFSP aiming to secure three million signatures.

Kenneth Slee, sub-postmaster at Heworth Post Office, said: "All post offices should have this petition on their counter. The Government is proposing to close the POCA, which is very popular with pensioners and other customers to have their benefits put into.

"The Government is proposing to abolish these card accounts and take away a lot of business, and inconvenience a lot of customers. So we have put a petition up in an effort to prevent this happening."

Mr Slee said he put the petitions up in his branch last Thursday, and has already had a positive response.

He said: "People have been falling over themselves to sign it. Nobody wants to see the post office close.

"It's a very serious threat. A lot of our working day is spent on these accounts.

"I would like to think we will always be here, and we possibly will, but for a lot of post offices, a large part of their income would be wiped out through this. It would definitely mean, ultimately, that there would be closures in the Post Office.

"I do not know if I would be one, but there would be a lot of closures, both urban and rural. It's a popular account, which works very well."

Colin Baker, general secretary of the NSFP, said at the launch of the petition: "The public must voice its opposition to the closure of the POCA, to send a clear message that the Post Office network still provides a crucial service to rural and urban communities the length and breadth of the country."

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decided in January to change the way benefits can be withdrawn. The proposed changes would mean nobody could use a POCA to draw a pension over the counter after the current DWP contract expires in 2010.

Updated: 09:25 Wednesday, May 03, 2006