Residents are calling on their neighbours to sign petitions demanding community post offices in Brighton are saved from the axe.

The Post Office plans to close three post offices in Bates Road, Havelock Road, and Ditchling Road, Brighton.

The proposals sparked anger among residents who fear they will lose a vital community service.

Betty Morris, 81, who has lived in Bates Road for more than 40 years, is one of a team of residents which has launched a petition demanding the offices are saved.

She has asked shops to keep the petition for customers to sign before the deadline for comments on February 3.

Mrs Morris said: "A lot of people around here feel life will be much more difficult without a post office. I'm the post office lodger. I'm in there almost every day.

"There is a community spirit here and I think we don't have some of the social problems other areas have because people know each other and bump into each other in these small shops."

The petition is being held in St Mary's Church, Surrenden Road, and in some of the shops in Preston Drove.

Mrs Morris said: "If I was fitter and younger, I would have gone from house to house."

If the post offices in Bates Road and Havelock Road are closed, people will be forced to walk to Fiveways or catch a bus into the city centre.

Mrs Morris said: "That could put £1 on the price of a book of stamps."

Brighton and Hove city councillor Jeane Lepper said the Post Office should think again about shutting its Ditchling Road branch.

The Post Office has blamed the planned closures on rising overheads and changes to the way pensions and benefits were paid, which made it difficult for competing branches to stay profitable.

The proposed closures will be among issues discussed at a public meeting organised by watchdog Postwatch to be held at the Quality Hotel, West Street, Brighton, on February 12 at 7.30pm.