RESIDENTS are gearing up for a fight to save their post office from closure.

RESIDENTS are gearing up for a fight to save their post office from closure.

The Post Office announced it wants to shut Finsbury's Goswell Road Post Office in place of Islington's Essex Road Post Office weeks after Islington residents won a reprieve on their local branch.

But Finsbury residents are in fighting spirit.

Blanche Woodbridge, chair-woman of the King Square Tenants' and Residents' Association, said: "We are going to make some sort of petition. It's such a busy place but the Post Office has more or less implied that it isn't.

"There are a lot of elderly people in the area who use Goswell Road Post Office and they would have to go to Mount Pleasant or Old Street or get a bus to Upper Street - so it will be hard for people."

Islington Council has vowed to campaign against the closure.

Councillor James Kempton (Liberal Democrat), leader of the council, said: "It is astonishing that after the strength of feeling forced them to backtrack, they think we won't resist an attempt to shut Goswell Road.

"Haven't they got the message? We and our residents will fight plans to close any post office branches."

Councillor Kempton has called Post Office chiefs in for an urgent meeting to discuss the proposals.

Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, is also working to stave off the threat of closure. She called a meeting on Monday to discuss the proposal with the Post Office and invited all major parties to attend but Councillor James Kempton declined.

Labour and the Lib-Dems refused to join forces to save Essex Road Post Office and led separate campaigns.