TWO community post offices are being closed to make way for convenience shops because they are failing to make enough money.

Supermarket bosses are closing post offices in Brook Lane, Trowbridge and Thornhill Road, Warminster as part of the refurbishment of Tesco Express shops.

Services will stop running within six months as new owners, Tesco, want to replace the post offices with more space for food and goods.

Staff at the threatened shops will be offered work in the new Tesco Express stores and supermarket bosses have promised to look into ways to relocate the postal service.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "We have reviewed the needs of a customer using Tesco Express as part of our refurbishment of the old One Stop stores.

"We are committed to providing customers in Brook Lane and Thornhill Road the same range of services they get in all our other Tesco Express stores.

"This means we need extra space to provide customers with the services they come to expect.

"From the point of view of providing these added services, we will be moving the post offices and refurbishing the Tesco Express stores but we are doing all we can to relocate the postal service elsewhere in the local community."

Tesco bought T&S, the parent company of One Stop, in 2002 and are converting 450 stores over the next three years.

But the decision to close the two post offices has sparked fears the elderly or disabled and those who do not own a car will be left out in the cold.

Warminster town councillor John Syme said: "The post office at Thornhill Road is extremely well used.

"A sales report for 2003/04 shows the post office deals with over 26,000 pensions. When it disappears it will leave a lot of people with nowhere to go."

In Trowbridge post office users are now expected to make a 45-minute round trip on foot to the nearest office.

Trowbridge town councillor Jeff Osborn said: "It is a retrograde move. We are going to write to Tesco saying it has lost a lot of goodwill with the community.

"It should have had the decency to tell people and have a proper process of consultation before it closes a post office. This will disengage a lot of people, especially the elderly and people who cannot drive."

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "Tesco is closing some post offices across the country but we have yet to have an official notice of closure for Trowbridge or Warminster. We would be disappointed if they did close but it is a commercial decision for Tesco to make. If we have a notice of closure we will have a look at the area and make a suitable decision about post office services."