THE first post office has closed as part of cutbacks that will see a further 23 axed across East Lancashire.

Customers at the Cheapside outlet in Padiham Road, Burnley, ceased its postal services at 1pm today as radical closure plans from the Post Office took hold.

The defiant postmaster vowed to carry on running the premises - which he also lives at - as a convenience shop.

And customers told of their sadness and disgust at the closure.

Postal bosses, who announced their plans in January, claimed the closures were needed to help halt £4m-a-week losses across the network.

The Lancashire Telegraph run a Save Our Post Offices campaign and petitions with thousands of signatures were handed to bosses.

Iqbal Javed Shaween, 56, who has run Cheapside post office for 18 months, said losing the outlet would hit his general store business as well as vulnerable elderly customers.

He said: "I bought this business only one-and-a-half years ago and it has a residency.

"The mortgage is a heavy one and I am losing £15,000 from the post office closing.

"The customers here are not happy. We have collected a petition. It's been signed and sent to the Post Office.

"Customers live around this area but if a customer has to go to another post office and that has a shop.

"It is natural that they will buy from that shop too. This is where I will lose the customers.

"This is an historic post office. It is more than 100 years old and one of my customers started crying because she came here as a child and now she is 80 years old."

Residents' nearest post offices is around a mile either way along Padiham Road.

Retired Doris Fawley, 74, from Gawthorpe Edge Park, said: "I use this post office once or twice a week and it is a vital part of the community.

"I get my pensions from here, I pay my bills here and I pay my council tax here so I am going to have to find somewhere else to go."

Noreen Burrows, 71, who is also retired and lives in Gawthorpe Edge Park, said: "There's a site over the road that's 95 per cent retired people and they use it.

"I have signed petitions and nothing's been done. They do what they want to do."

Retired Sylvia Cooke, 62, of Sycamore Avenue, added: "It is a terrible shame this post office is closing.

"I have been using it for about four years since I moved round here.

"I think it is disgusting considering how many people use it."

And Louise Pickford, 22, who is unemployed and lives in Radnor Avenue, said: "It is more for elderly people but it is always busy when I go in so it will affect them and the disabled too."

The other 23 post offices will shut before May 12.