TWO post offices in Trafford are to be axed.

The Post Office has confirmed closure plans for its branches at Brook Lane in Timperley and Dunham Town.

Ashley Post Office, just outside Trafford, is also being shut.

They are among 60 sub post offices in Cheshire, Merseyside, Wirral, Wigan, Leigh and Makerfield that will be closed after a six week public consultation, with the first closures taking place in March.

Altrincham and Sale West MP Graham Brady has condemned the decision to go ahead with the closures, and branded the consultation a 'cosmetic exercise'.

He says some of his most vulnerable constituents will be hit.

The MP pointed out that the closure of the post office in Dunham would see the area lose its only local shop. The nearest alternative branch is at Oldfield Brow, one a half miles away, or Bowdon, almost two miles away and there is no direct bus service to either branch.

Customers who use Brook Lane Post Office in Timperley will have to travel to Park Road or to a branch on Stockport Road, Timperley The closure plans were opposed by all the poltical groups in the borough.

Mr Brady said: "I am deeply disappointed with today's news. Those of us who lobbied Post Office managers were left with the clear impression that these closures were a foregone conclusion, regardless of how local people felt.

"I am angry that the public consultation exercise was clearly just a formality and a number of valid objections have simply been ignored."

Jane Briginshaw, Post Office Ltd's network development manager north west, said: "These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly. We have considered very carefully all the comments made during the public consultation. We believe that the amended plan announced today offers our customers in this area the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the Government's minimum access criteria and the other factors the Government has asked us to consider."