The speed at which the final decision has come has angered residents in the affected areas, with many feeling the public consultation was nothing more than a paper exercise and the result a foregone conclusion.
Post Offices at Lowick, Milfield, Norham, Ancroft, Doddington and Bamburgh will go, but will be replaced by an outreach service, while the offices at North Sunderland and Scremerston will close and not be replaced by the mobile service.
Sir Alan Beith MP has branded the consultation on Post Office closures in Northumberland a 'complete sham,' saying that Post Office management has rushed to confirm its closure plans without even taking time to read the thousands of representations from local people.
The Advertiser believes that sub-postmasters and mistresses were informed of the decision to go ahead with the proposed closures last week, although it was not made public until Tuesday, meaning the final decision to close the branches was taken just two weeks after the consultation period closed.
Sir Alan Beith said: "Post Office Limited is closing very busy branches in larger villages such as Norham, Milfield and Lowick so as to create more business for the planned mobile office which is more suited to serving smaller communities.
"The Post Office is having to tackle losses which result from the actions of both the present and previous governments. Both Labour and Conservative governments deliberately made it more difficult for people to use the Post Office for pension and benefit payments. But even that is no excuse for the shoddy and arrogant way this consultation on closures has been carried out.
"Village communities are paying a high price for Government neglect of the Post Offices, and Post Office management's high-handed ignoring of public concerns."
During the six-week local public consultation, Post Office Ltd received around 3500 responses and attended 37 meetings with customers and their representatives to understand their concerns and to ensure that all information provided by them formed part of the final decision regarding each affected branch.
Adrian Wales, Post Office Ltd's network development manager, north east, said: "These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly. We have considered very carefully all the comments made during the public consultation. We believe that the plan announced today (Tuesday) offers our customers in this area the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the Government's minimum access criteria and the other factors the Government has asked us to consider."
Of the eight branches to close in the Berwick area, it is believed that Lowick will close in early November and Norham between January and March next year, as the outreach service for Norham is being provided by the Scottish outreach van based at Coldstream. The Edinburgh, Lothians and South of Scotland proposed closures are currently in the second week of public consultation.
Scremerston is believed to be closing on October 13, but there has been no official word on when Milfield, Ancroft, Doddington. North Sunderland or Bamburgh will close, although it will definitely not be before October 7.
Coun Dougie Watkin, whose ward covers four of the Post Offices to close, told the Advertiser: "I really feel for the residents of Lowick and Norham, and for Scremerston it is particularly annoying, especially as the local authority pushed for a service there for the elderly, and Post Office Ltd are now walking away from it.
"You can understand the public being cynical when good cases have been put forward but there has been no changes at all to the proposals."