Residents from Abermule, Llandyssil, Llanmerewig and Cefn-y-coed all aired their views in front of three members of Post Office Ltd, one from Postwatch, MP Lembit Opik and County Councillor Wynne Jones.

However, among all the vocal outcries by far the loudest cheer of the day went to Abermule's subpostmistress Pauline Albrecht.

"Thank you all for coming out tonight and supporting this brilliant cause," she said, with a tear in her eye.

"I have actually had an award from Post Office Ltd for the work I do in the community, wouldn't it be a shame if this same Post Office Ltd took away my ability to work within a community I really care about.

"Business in Abermule is growing, I know it is growing and it will continue to grow because Abermule is growing."

Post Office Limited wants to close the 102-year-old Post Office and replace it with a mobile van – something the residents of Abermule and nearby communities are firmly against.

So why Abermule? Non Williams, Post Office's public relations manager, explained: "We have a computer model that recognises four key criteria: Size of the branch, size of neighbouring branches, proximity of neighbouring branches and the financial benefit of closing a branch.

"These are then fed into a model and in the crudest form the top 2,500 are then proposed for closure."

However, the one thing that did come out of the meeting is hope. There is hope that Abermule, and other threatened Post Offices, can be saved.
"Plans have changed in the past because of the consultation process. In the Cardiff and Glamorgan region two Post Office that were set for closure actually stayed open. However, we do have to close 2,500 so if we save one then another one will have to close elsewhere.

"No proposal is taken lightly and a significant amount of work is done before we reach the consultation period.

"We appreciate we could have missed some vital information and therefore we guarantee that every piece of correspondence we receive is read and logged.

"We are consulting on whether we are closing the correct Post Offices."