Shade Post Office and Portsmouth Post Office were among 61 branches earmarked for closure in West Yorkshire and both are to close, Post Office Ltd announced this week.

A six week consultation period followed the publication of the company's closure list in mid-May and when the announcement was made this week only two of the 61 had been reprieved - with two more in those localities selected for closure in their place.

Portsmouth Post Office will not stay open when the service comes to an end but Shade Post Office will stay open as a shop.

Mr George Richardson said he and his wife Brenda, who is postmaster, felt for the people the post office's closure would affect but in a village the size of Portsmouth it was not viable keeping the premises open otherwise and they would convert it back to a home.

Post Office Ltd has said the earliest any of the affected post offices would close would be mid-August but Mr Richardson said they had not yet received conformation of the exact date the service would cease at Portsmouth.

At Shade Post Office postmaster Mr Jim Toye said the news was very disappointing but he would be staying open as a shop. As well as offering a service to villagers, Mr Toye is one of the Todmorden shops which has worked hard to promote Fairtrade goods.

He said: "It is very disappointing - all the people who responded to the consultation and it has never come to anything, but that seems to be the way it is going. It is disappointing for the village but I will be keeping the shop open."

Many customers walked to Shade Post Office but with the next nearest ones being at Walsden or Todmorden centre, many would not be able to walk there, he said.

Concerns had been expressed over both post offices stressing particularly the effect removing the service would have on elderly people and the role the post offices played in the community.

Post Office Ltd said the network supported the national accessibility criteria introduced by the Government which ensured more than 99.9 per cent of West Yorkshire's population would see either no change to their existing branch or would remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

Mr Adrian Wales, Post Office Ltd's network development manager north east said all comments received on the post offices had been studied closely before a decision was reached.

"These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly. We have considered very carefully all the comments made during the public consultation. We believe that the plan announced today offers customers in this area the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the Goverment's minimum access criteria and the other factors the Government has asked us to consider."