Up to 17 post offices in the Bradford district could be earmarked for the chop under a Government closure programme.

Residents will be given six weeks to save their local post office once it has been marked for closure.

Ministers, confirming plans to axe 2,500 UK branches, said campaigners would be able to challenge any proposed closure and put a case for reprieve.

A similar process during the last wave of closures spared up to 80 post offices - just over three per cent of the total - following pressure from residents.

The latest cull - which will start this summer and take about 18 months - involves six per cent of post offices. That could mean 17 branches going in the parliamentary constituencies of Bradford North, Bradford West, Bradford South, Keighley and Shipley. It is not yet known when specific closures will be announced.

The Government has asked Post Office Ltd to ensure 99 per cent of the population remains within three miles of a post office and 90 per cent within one mile.

Post Office Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: "Communities will be able to challenge the application of the access criteria during a six-week process.

"Post Office Ltd will have to demonstrate they have taken into account local factors, including public transport access and the impact of closures on local economies. There is some discretion in the application of criteria. There is no hard and fast rule."

Where communities came up with a viable plan to save a branch, this would be judged "case by case", he said.

The process would leave what ministers described as a "sustainable" national network of 11,800 branches.

The Government has invested £2 billion in the network since 1999 but it is still losing £4 million a week. Ministers have agreed to provide a further £1.7 billion up to 2011.