The loss of Beeston's post office and village store would make village life unsustainable for single mum Elizabeth Gould. Right next to the village school, it means the 41-year-old can not only bank, post parcels and letters but also have shopping done for her and delivered to her door through a scheme with Sainsbury's.

The loss of Beeston's post office and village store would make village life unsustainable for single mum Elizabeth Gould.

Right next to the village school, it means the 41-year-old can not only bank, post parcels and letters but also have shopping done for her and delivered to her door through a scheme with Sainsbury's.

It is right next to the school, where she walks one of her daughters to, and it is where her older daughter, with her friends, can stand in the dry from the rain waiting for the school bus to Litcham.

“The next closest post office would be at Litcham, three miles away,” she said. “To walk it would take 50 minutes with two youngsters in tow on a road deemed unsafe for walking to school by the county council.

“And there is only one bus into Dereham everyday. It's either that or a taxi.

“Our post office and shop is the centre of village life, they look after us, take in parcels even if we haven't got any change on us and do our shopping for us.

“At Christmas they put up lights. Hundreds came last year. It is how life is here and they want to take that away from us.

“It is the heart of the village and without the post office here I don't think they could sustain that. Village life would be lost. It is like they are doing a Dr Beeching on the post office network.”

She criticised the government for stopping people pick up their child benefit and from buying TV licences, savings stamps and electricity tokens from post offices.

Although she works three days per week in Norwich, the prospect of spending her entire lunch hour waiting in the Castle Mall post office, which had happened, was not worth thinking about.