The latest proposal will mean more than one in seven outlets across Scotland has been either shut or downgraded, write Alison Campsie and Julia Horton

ALISON CAMPSIE and JULIAN HORTON

With the sign "Flowers By McDowell" on the wall and an array of bouquets surrounding customers, it would be easy to think this was just another florist.

But to the left of the door, a large notice advertises the wealth of post office services available inside this Edinburgh shop. Paying bills, collecting pensions and benefits, renewing licences and permits, even buying foreign currency - all these and more are possible here.

But there is a strong possibility that all of that will end. This post office at 556 Gorgie Road is one of 13 in the city and dozens across Lothian and Borders which are now earmarked for closure.

They are the last outlets to be lined up for the axe in Scotland as part of a controversial UK-wide cull, led by Chancellor Alistair Darling, who announced that some 2500 branches must go as the business is haemorrhaging cash.

More than 250 branches in Scotland out of 1638 - more than one in seven - will either shut for good or operate on a downgraded service.

What makes the threat hanging over Gorgie Road all the more controversial is that it is in Mr Darling's Edinburgh constituency. People there are far from happy that their MP is taking what they see as vital services from their community.

Pensioner Nan Hall says charitably that he might be "trying to do his best" but admits she feels let down.

The 76-year-old, who lives nearby, said: "There is a definite need here for this post office. The district has quite a lot of elderly people and it's quite a distance to walk to another post office. I collect my pension here and post everything that I need to. I would not like it to close."

Moira Rosie, 80, who walks to the post office with her dog, also comes in regularly to pick up her pension. She said: "All the old people here get their pensions at this post office. It's always busy. I would miss it if it went."

Businesses were also concerned about plans to shut the branch.

Alastair Shields, director of building contractors WM Black and Sons, who walked in to post a letter, said: "We probably use this post office every day. It's handy for vehicle licences and for post, stamps and general post office services.

"I really think it's appalling that the post office could be closed and I would think it would cause difficulties for other businesses here."

But on the other side of the city, in Niddrie, a different picture emerges of why the closures may have to go ahead.

Andrew Gilhooly is the Scottish executive officer for the National Federation of Subpostmasters. He has run the Haydrive Post Office for 15 years. Yesterday, he described the closures as a "necessary evil".

Postmasters, who are self employed, get paid by the Post Office on the volume of work carried out at their branch. As the number of services on offer at the Post Office, such as the purchase of television licences, is scaled back, less business is carried out at the counter.

With the government now paying new benefit claims including pensions into the bank, fewer people are coming into post offices. The popularity of the internet in paying bills has also had an effect. People can now pay their car tax, for example, with the click of a mouse. Standing in the queue with a bundle of paperwork is now no longer necessary.

Mr Gilhooly said: "We have got to accept that some of the post offices have to close to make the surviving ones more viable. We have lost the footfall into the branches, and that impacts on the retail side of things too.

"Since the government decided to pay benefits into banks, our income has reduced drastically. That means there is less money to spend on salaries. Wages are reducing and costs are going up. Subpostmasters are being stung twice.

"If the government insists on paying benefits into banks, they are administering the slow death of post offices."

Mr Gilhooly, whose branch is not going to close under the current round of cuts, is all too aware of the high emotions surrounding post offices.

"We provide a friendly service of the highest integrity," he said. "It is a community place where everyone congregates. You get to know the pensioners. If they don't come in to pick up their pension, you ask after them. We are a bit like a neighbourhood watch."

This community service is a recurring theme in the protests against their closure. For many, they are a rare point of contact with the outside world. This is particularly true of rural areas, where a post office is often one of the few remaining places where people mix and meet.

The emotional connection people have with their branch is hard to alter - particularly when they cannot see a strong benefit in the changes proposed. Why travel three miles to a post office when there has always been one just across the road?

Professor Frank Rennie, lecturer in sustainable rural development at Lews Castle College UHI in Stornoway, said the closures were particularly hard to process for many when it was clear that the overriding motive of the post office, and the government, is to save money.

Professor Rennie said: "People have a high value on these things that is out of proportion with the financial return on them. Look at the example of a rural school. There is often an educational reason for combining two schools, when you end up providing modern, up-to-date, healthy premises.

"But yet people still go through the pain barrier about school closures, even when they accept there might be good reason for doing so. With post offices, the same is true, but it is much more difficult for people to see how you can improve the service by removing the services that it offers.

"When the approach is about cost-cutting activities, people become really incensed when it is thought that they are small and can be done away with. There is a constant feeling of erosion."

Before the current round of closures got under way, the government said it was losing £4m a week maintaining the post office network. Across the UK, around 800 of the smallest post offices were used by an average of 16 people a week. The Gress Post Office in Lewis, which has now closed, served an average of nine customers a week.

One by one, 200 or so branches will either close in Scotland or operate on a downgraded system. Post offices will take to the roads on a mobile service, or be run for a few hours a week in their existing homes or in alternative premises, such as church halls or grocery stores.

For the government, this is how the Post Office will meet its service commitments while achieving serious cash savings at the same time.

Angus McNeil, SNP MP for the Western Isles, said: "The Post Office has consistently been reducing post offices over a number of years. In one sense it is understandable where you have a small rural community and there are very high running costs involved. But where the reductions lead to a service which runs for two to four hours a week, it is pointless. People will just make the journey elsewhere leaving these services also unviable.

"People in urban areas may take for granted that they can do their business at a bank, a building society or a post office but in rural areas you often don't have the choice. Around a third of the population here have no access to a bank within an hour's drive."

However, it would appear that the last word on the closure programme will not be written by the Post Office. Bold ideas are being formulated to give people the service they want.

In response to the latest round of cuts, an idea being championed by an English local authority is being looked at with interest in Scotland. Essex County Council has decided to reopen around 15 of the 36 branches shut by the Post Office following a public outcry to the cuts. The council has invested around £1.5m to restart the branches and is working on converting them into successful business models - the very thing that the Post Office failed to do.

It is an idea which has been looked at by both Edinburgh and Fife councils, with the Scottish Government too requesting information on the experiment as Essex prepares to reopen its first branch in September.

Those counting the loss of their post office in Scotland could still yet get their red letter day.