TWO post offices in Oxfordshire were closed yesterday as staff walked out as part of a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and branch closures.

The Witney and Banbury Crown post offices shut their doors at 2.30pm, although the Oxford office in St Aldate’s remained open.

It is the 13th round of industrial action since Easter.

The Witney site is earmarked for closure, with the Post Office wanting to move it from its Market Square premises to the WH Smith store in the Woolgate Centre next March.

In February the company announced it was one of 70 directly-managed Crown branches across the country facing closure to cut losses.

Communication Workers Union general secretary Dave Ward said: “The company is unfairly imposing pay freezes on both Crown staff and now admin and supply chain workers while senior managers have enjoyed significant bonus payments.

“These double standards cannot continue and we hope that this latest strike action will focus the minds of management to see sense."”

A Post Office spokesman said: “We need to get the Crown network to break even by March 2015. The union needs to recognise that and work with us to achieve it rather than wasting time on strike action.”

On Saturday Duncan Enright, a West Oxfordshire district councillor for the Witney East ward, will be collecting signatures for a petition designed to fight the plans to close the Witney branch.