Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond and town MP Iain Wright have panned the idea of buying up the town's under-threat post offices – a move planned by Essex County Council.

The authority is the first in the country to discuss taking over the running of post offices earmarked for closure by negotiating a buy-out price with Post Office bosses.

But in Hartlepool – where the Elwick Road, Chatham Road and Hart post offices are facing the axe – civic leaders say the money is simply not available to do the same.

Instead, Mayor Drummond and Mr Wright are in favour of helping existing post offices diversify and be used for a wider range of services.

Mayor Drummond said a similar buy-out in Hartlepool is "highly unlikely" and added: "As I understand it, the branches under threat in Essex are all rural and not in the middle of suburban areas.

"We haven't got the money, we agreed our budget a few weeks ago. It's not something certainly we would plan for. With the timescale we have got, there wouldn't be time to look at that."

Mayor Drummond added: "There's a moral issue here. It's the Government that is withdrawing the funding from the post offices and I don't think the burden should fall on local councils to replace Government funding with their own funding."

The mayor said the council would now be looking at ways of safeguarding existing post offices and helping them to diversify and "work smarter", by possibly introducing schemes where people will be able to access council services there.

Town MP Iain Wright said: "Local authorities have considerable discretion over how they use their resources. I'm not going to dictate what Hartlepool Borough Council should be doing.

"I would like to see a collection of public services in the same place and people like the council, primary care trust and Housing Hartlepool and even the Post Office coming together.

"Chatham Road post office is a good example. There is a children's centre and a residents' participation team there."

Dyke House councillor and former postman Reuben Atkinson, who collected around 500 signatures on the Mail's Protect Our Post Offices petition, said: "Anything that saves the post offices is a good idea, but Essex is a pretty rich place – whether we could do it in Hartlepool is another thing."

Matt Nicholls, spokesman for the Local Government Association, said local councils would be looking at what Essex County Council was doing "with great interest".

Anyone wanting to join the fight to protect town post offices can sign our petition which is available in the Mail head office, from street vendors and in newsagents.