Spend a few million pounds setting up a policy think-tank, or even a quango, to look into the matter – and then decide that its findings come too late to affect the outcome, anyway.

Sorry to sound like Victor Meldrew, but I can't believe the way that this government is allowing thousands of our sub-post offices to be shut down without regard to the effect on their customers, and against the backdrop of mega-sums being spent on unwanted projects and focus groups which work against consumers' best interests.

The Post Office is set to chop many of its valuable community assets in the area during the next few months.

The monopoly's desk-bound accountants pay no heed to the special circumstances of a location with such a high number of pensioners.

This year, East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton reminded the House of Commons that Worthing had the oldest population in the world, "if not the universe" – with 4.6 per cent of the town's population being not just pensioners, but also over the age of 85.

This factor of elderly people having to walk further for their postal and pension services is also compounded by the pressure on ALL of us when we use post offices.

They are now much busier and we have to wait a lot longer, owing to many more people using them

We thought it bad enough when sub-post offices such as the ones in Bath Place, Ham Road and Rowlands Road, Worthing, were axed, despite public outcry at the time.

There was an immediate increase in queueing time at the main post office in Chapel Road.

Now it is proposed to eat even further into the "meat" of the town's remaining post office outlets.

Heaven knows, we are currently suffering enough worry, thanks to the Fit for the Future hospital proposals, which also, of course, are of major concern to old people who are not very mobile.

The last thing we deserve is this short-sighted slap in the face which takes no democratic account of people's needs.

How many instances can you quote of public (and private) services having changed to make life a hell of a lot more difficult than it used to be?

Necessary phone calls are often an expensive marathon, with recorded voices giving us the option-number run-around before we do (or don't!) get through to a voice which is actually human and "live" – and even he or she might be in India.

Car insurance companies centralise authorised repair depots, so that we're asked to drive 40 miles to get our vehicle unbent.

And back to the Post Office – at our address, we have not lost our second delivery, but the first one, which now arrives near the time that the second one used to.

Let's fight the new post office closures, but don't expect too much success if the past is anything to go by.