BURNLEY MP Peter Pike said there may be a glimmer of hope that two of the seven post offices in the town threatened with closure will be saved.

Mr Pike, and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Labour Party, Kitty Ussher, met with regional Royal Mail bosses last month to discuss people's concerns over the proposed closures.

They also handed over a 1,200-signature petition, copies of which had been in all the threatened post offices for customers to sign.

This week Mr Pike received a letter from Julia Marwood, who is leading the consultation, stating that she would be looking at all the representations made regarding the possible closure of the Accrington Road, Briercliffe Road, Brunshaw, Oxford Road, Queen Victoria Road, Queensgate and Stoneyholme branches.

He said following the letter he was hopeful that Queen Victoria Road and Accrington Road might be saved. He said: "They are obviously still considering it and no final decision has been made, but I am hopeful that we pressed them to think again about some of the proposed closures.

"The strongest cases we made were for Brunshaw, Queen Victoria Road, and Accrington Road. From what I can gather it seems unlikely that Brunshaw will remain open because most of its trade is through benefit payments, which is ceasing to be the work of post offices.

"But with the other two there is still a little bit of hope. It would appear that we have convinced them that there is something to look at with the other two."

A spokeswoman for the post office said: "After the consultation ends there is a period, usually at least two weeks, during which we assess everyone's views. All the points raised are taken into account before any final decisions are taken."