People power could save a post office branch which is threatened with closure.

An announcement is expected within weeks that shops in Sunte Avenue, Lindfield, and Queens Road, Haywards Heath, will shut.

Thousands of branches - including up to 100 in Sussex - are earmarked for closure as Post Office Ltd tries to make up for £140 million losses last year.

The Haywards Heath Society and Lindfield Preservation Society are to form a co-operative to buy one of the branch franchises.

People would acquire shares in the post office, to be run as a not-for-profit venture.

Michael Anstey, vice-chairman of Lindfield Preservation Society, which has about 900 members, said: "I don't think the Post Office would allow us to save both.

"As long as one of the postmasters agrees, and the Post Office does too, we are hopeful.

"The benefit is that we would ensure the continuity of a facility in the area.

"It's also a non-profit organisation and so would not have the same pressures.

"We don't know yet if it would be financially viable but we have contacted the Post Office and are waiting for a response."

Mr Anstey said about £30,000 would be needed.

The idea came from a similar scheme in Horsted Keynes, where villagers saved their post office from closure three years ago when the sub-postmaster retired.

Horsted Keynes Post Office Committee manages the scheme and chairman David Wilson said: "We invited people to make donations. We got £22,000 and made each donor a shareholder."

Richard Moon, honorary secretary of the Haywards Heath Society, which has about 250 members, said people would have to work together.

He said: "It's easy to sit back and just watch it happen.

"The whole thing will depend on enough public support."

Mid Sussex's Conservative MP, Nicholas Soames, backs the plan.

He said: "I have written a strong letter to Stephen Timms MP, minister of state, to seek his urgent support for such a sensible and effective scheme and to ask him to intervene."

A Post Office spokeswoman said: "Where there is a closure, there will be other post offices nearby because we would not close a branch if there weren't adequate transport links to another one."