£4.5m for chiefs in charge of closing our Post Offices

Chief executive Adam Crozier pocketed £1.3 million in salaries and bonuses in 2006-07, with the other board members getting nearly £3 million between them.

Details of the pay packets came as the Royal Mail plans to axe a fifth of the London post office network in a quickfire closure programme.

Royal Mail bosses say the closures are necessary to stem the losses suffered by the UK network.

But critics say the bonuses paid to the board of directors is the equivalent to a subsidy of £26,600 for each branch under threat in London - more than enough to keep them afloat and save scores of sub-masters from redundancy.

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat business spokesman and MP for Brent East, said: "These figures will leave Londoners furious. The Post Office directors are happy to trouser huge bonuses, at the expense of Londoners who are being forced to endure longer and longer queues.

"The Government should help post offices develop their business rather than forcing more and more of them to go to the wall."

Unions also condemned the huge pay rewards, saying it was "outrageous" that the bosses were being rewarded while sub-masters faced redundancy.

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, said: "The Royal Mail bonus scheme is outrageous. Investment should be made in the post office network, not in managers who are closing it down."

Royal Mail is conducting a six-week consultation on the closures with a view to shutting the branches by the middle of summer.

The cutbacks come despite figures showing London has already lost more than 300 post offices in four years, with the numbers cut from 1,175 to 849.

The capital also has fewer branches per head of population than any other region, with just one branch for every 8,460 people - compared to the national average of one branch for 3,860.

According to Royal Mail's accounts, Mr Crozier and his fellow directors received total emoluments of £4.1 million last year, of which £2.5 million was salaries. In addition they received some £3.1 million under "long term incentive plans".

A Post Office spokesman said: "This is not simply about saving running costs - the problem facing Post Office branches is that there are too many chasing too few customers and too little income, which is why the prime aim of the Government's closure programme is to give those branches remaining better long-term prospects."