Martin Quinn, from the Campaign for Cash: “This is another nail in the coffin for communities who rely on the Post Office network for access to cash services”.
He said: “The Government must immediately demand that this closure programme be stopped, and treat the Post Office network as national infrastructure”.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which introduced new rules from September 18 to better protect access to cash, included Post Offices in its considerations of where banks are allowed to close branches.
Post Offices are considered by regulators to be working alongside banking hubs, which are shared spaces where banks are present for one day a week each. The 100th banking hub will be opened next month, and before the election the Labour Party promised an additional 350 over five years.
Current government rules mean that 99pc of the population must live within an hour’s walk of a Post Office, or three miles, and nine in 10 must be within just one mile of their nearest outlet.
In deprived urban areas, 99pc of the population must live within one mile, whereas 95pc of those in rural areas must be within three miles. The population of urban centres typically lives closer than those in more remote rural areas.
At the beginning of the millennium, there were 18,393 Post Offices. By 2023, this had dropped to 11,684, according to Telegraph analysis last month.