Post Office chiefs failed to face angry customers at a public meeting called to discuss a wave of branch closures in Mid Sussex.

Plans to close five post offices were announced last month.

The Post Office wants to shut down branches in High Street, Lingfield Road and North End in East Grinstead and Queens Road and Sunte Avenue in Haywards Heath.

It says it can no longer afford to keep all 23 Mid Sussex branches open because there is too little business.

Residents are organising an action group to campaign against the proposals.

But despite an invitation, there was no Post Office representative at a meeting chaired by Mid Sussex Liberal Democrat candidate Serena Tierney and Craig MacKellar of Post Watch, the watchdog for post services.

A spokesman for the Post Office said: "It is logistically impossible to attend every public meeting."

Coun Ian Ellis said after the meeting at Age Concern in Haywards Heath: "Although there is a feeling of inevitability, one in ten closures are stopped so there is still hope."