ALMOST 100 people have so far joined forces in a fight to stop the closure of a Worcester post office.

So far, 95 names have been added to a petition opposing plans to shut the Astwood Road post office, based inside Astwood Pharmacy, Rainbow Hill.

Arthritis sufferer Sylvia Florence-Lane, who will 87 next month, hopes the petition will halt the closure.

Mrs Florence-Lane, of Tunnel Hill, Rainbow Hill, cannot even struggle on to public transport because of the pain in her legs and fears she will have to replace her regular visits to her nearby branch with expensive taxi trips to an office in Brickfields Road.

"I couldn't go up to Brickfields with my arthritis - I can't climb up the steps on a bus," she said.

"As long as I've been living up here we've been using that post office. In 1939 it used to be in the paper shop and then, six or seven years ago, it was put in the chemists.

"They had it all done up with lowered steps for push chairs and people with walking frames."

The planned closure is part of proposals announced by Royal Mail last week to shut five branches around the city by February.

But Mrs Florence-Lane's family is leading the battle to keep the Astwood Road branch open after reading of the plans in last Thursday's Evening News.

"As soon as we saw the news we thought 'How can we stop it?'. We don't want it to close and hopefully, we can get this one to stay open," said Susan Lane, Mrs Florence-Lane's daughter-in-law.

"We were totally shocked. It's a very, very popular post office and they are very helpful, giving us advice about the forms we have to fill in," added Mrs Lane, who plans to send the petition to Royal Mail in protest.

A consultation period about the plans - which also details plans to close branches in Himbleton Road off Henwick Road, Malvern Road, Lower Wick, Lowesmoor and The Tything - ends on Tuesday, December 16.

Worcester City Council leader Stephen Inman, announced on Tuesday that his cabinet will, later this month, instruct the chief executive of the council to write to the Royal Mail and Worcester MP Mike Foster "deploring" the planned closures.