The Post Office is closing about 3,000 of the UK's 9,000 urban sub-post offices in an attempt to stem huge financial losses.

The Post Office review, known as Urban Network Reinvention, is designed to ensure that a smaller but viable network remains.

It has already seen controversial shutdowns in other parts of the country as post office chiefs try to halt a financial crisis.

The chairman of the Wiltshire panel of Postwatch, the official watchdog body for postal services, David Hide, said back in May: "The Department of Work and Pensions embarked on a campaign to pay more pensions and benefits through bank accounts as this was a more secure way of doing it.

"The majority of people now have bank accounts and it is cheaper for the Government to do it that way. Stamps can now be bought from a range of outlets and more people are using e-mails rather than sending letters. The net result is a falling off of business for small post offices."

Lowden post office has served its community for decades and now resides inside T & S Stores at the foot of Sheldon Road. It is under review after moving from Lowden 12 years ago.

Tesco is looking seriously at the sub post offices in its stores around the country and it has already identified those at Devizes, Warminster, Ludgershall and Shaw in Swindon as candidates for the chop.

Swindon had 30 post offices two years ago but now only 27 are left. And it is feared that nine of these could be axed.

The Devizes constituency area will be looked at later in the summer, though it is thought unlikely that the three urban post offices in Devizes or the five remaining sub post offices in places like Pewsey, Marlborough, Tidworth and Ludgershall will be identified as surplus to requirements.

A spokesman from the Post Office said: "The aim is to reduce the number of post offices in urban areas, so those that have a better chance of survival will pick up the business from those closed."

Post Office Ltd is proposing that four of the 101 branches across Swindon, and North Wiltshire should close permanently.

The post offices up for the axe are, the Pewsham Forest branch, Chippenham, the Ferndale Road branch and Oxford Road branch in North Swindon, and the Clifton Street branch in South Swindon.