THE in-store post office at Safeway in Haydon Wick has served its final customers.

It closed yesterday after residents lost their four-month battle to keep the popular facility open.

And it will be replaced with a magazine stall, fresh pizza stand or a salad bar.

Post office manager, Angie Mildon, from Marlborough, who has lost her job, said: "I feel very sad to be leaving and will miss all our loyal customers. The store must now accept the consequences of their actions."

Angie, who has served the store for more than four years, claims that scores of customers have boycotted Safeway since it decided to shut the post office.

"Shoppers are voting with their feet and taking their custom elsewhere," she said. "Takings are bound to fall now it has officially closed."

A 2,000-strong petition, backed by North Swindon MP Michael Wills, public meetings and protests failed to convince Safeway that the service was worth keeping.

Now residents are determined that the store will pay the price for ignoring their opinions.

Maggie Shaw, 62, who spearheaded the campaign to save their post office, said: "I have not used the store since they betrayed the community with their decision to rob us of something so important. Safeway is committing financial suicide and deserves to suffer."

Audrey Wood, 80, has used the post office to draw her pension, pay bills and buy stamps since it first opened 14 years ago.

She said: "I am extremely angry about the closure and have already taken my business elsewhere. But whenever I venture into the store, it certainly looks deserted."

Audrey now has to travel by bus to a post office in Gorse Hill because there is no suitable alternative within walking distance.

"It is most exasperating and time-consuming," she said. "But I need a post office which combines shopping facilities."

And local businesses will also be affected by the closure.

Jessica Gadd, 24, an office worker at Edmund Nutall, was one of the post office's last customers.

She said: "This is very annoying because I used the service everyday to post letters and buy our stamps. With all the new businesses and homes arriving on Priory Vale, this seems a crazy move."

The post office closure was originally supposed to coincide with a store revamp, but this has since been postponed.

Emma French, spokeswoman for Safeway, said: "The post office closed yesterday.

"This was a hard decision to make and followed a careful review which concluded that to offer the best service to customers, we would need to use the space in a new way."