Two post offices pulled down their shutters for the last time despite a campaign to fight the closure.

Residents and customers battled for more than six months to get a reprieve from Post Office chiefs.

But the branches, one in Margery Road, Hove and the other in North Hangleton, Hove, served their last customers last night.

It follows the closure of three other offices in Brighton, in Bates Road, Havelock Road and Ditchling Road.

Residents in Lewes are also campaigning for under threat offices in the town, and the Post Office admits there could be more closures across Sussex as it scrutinises 3,000 branches, many of them in urban areas such as Brighton and Hove and Worthing.

Brighton and Hove City Councillor Peter Willows was one of the last customers to be served at the North Hangleton post office last night.

He opposes any closures of offices across the city.

Coun Willows said people living in his ward would now have to travel more than half a mile to their nearest branch, a significant distance for the many elderly and disabled people in that ward.

He said: "People haven't got a lot of money in Hangleton and they will have to catch a bus at £1.20 a journey. That could be £2.40 for a return trip to the post office. I think it's disgraceful."

A spokesman for the Post Office could not confirm how many offices had closed in Sussex or how many were likely to close, but warned that it was an ongoing programme.

He said: "We are going through them in tranches. We wrote to all urban post masters and said that there were opportunities to take up a compensation offer."

The spokesman said the decision to close branches was not about the future of an individual branch but the overall viability of the urban network.