CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a Bournemouth post office from closure have been warned to base their objections on facts, not emotions.

Around 100 people packed the pews at St Alban's Church last night to hear how they could try to save the branch at the Co-op convenience store in lower Charminster Road.

They were urged to come back with friends and neighbours to a second public meeting at 7.30pm on Monday, when a representative of Post Office Limited will be attending.

Peter Atkinson from the watchdog organisation Post Watch explained that Post Office Limited had to close 2,500 branches around the country.

"The closure programme is based on customer usage, size, proximity to other post offices and benefit to Post Office Limited.

"Arguments about value to the community hold no water.

"It's a straightforward pounds and pence issue," he said.

"The only expressions of concern the Post Office will listen to are those based on fact.

"Can users get to a post office within a mile of where they live?

"Does it have the capacity, transport and infrastructure?"

He advised objectors to write individual letters to Post Office Limited, which has given people until September 1 to make their views known.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood, who was also representing his Bournemouth West colleague Sir John Butterfill, said it was "disgraceful" that the six-week consultation was being held in the middle of the summer.

Several residents expressed concern about access to the nearest alternative post office, in upper Charminster Road, and about its capacity to deal with the extra business.

Some also challenged the Post Office's view that the lower Charminster Road branch was the less busy of the two.