POST office customers across Dorset will have to wait until the summer to see a list of branches facing closure.

A period of public consultation will begin with a press announcement in the middle of July listing all threatened branches and those planned to provide a community outreach service.

Staff at the regional headquarters of Postwatch, in Weymouth, are gearing up to help Dorset people make their voices heard.

A spokesman for the watchdog urged people not to gather petitions or to send generic letters.

"Post Office Ltd know how many people use a post office. If a petition arrives with thousands of signatures, they know it is not accurate," a spokesman said.

Individual letters with strong arguments on demographics, development and public transport were more effective, the spokesman added.

County Hall chiefs told the Daily Echo that they were monitoring the efforts of Essex County Council to bring threatened post offices under local authority control.

Cllr Alan Havelock, Dorset County Council's cabinet member for corporate services and resources, said money would be the deciding factor in any plans to run threatened post offices from County Hall.

"As much as I would like to see post offices remain open, I simply don't know where we would get the money from, said Cllr Havelock. "I'd like to see something happen, but we are strapped for cash," he added.

Informal discussions at cabinet level would help to decide DCC's position on council ownership of rural post offices, said Cllr Havelock.