SUCKLEY Post Office and Village Stores, tucked away in the pretty hamlet of Longley Green, probably has few claims to fame. But did you know it's better than being in Australia?

At least it is in the eyes of Roger and Barbara Blackburn, who run it. Having emigrated to Oz, but then fallen out of love with the country after two years, they have now found their rural idyll in a valley at the end of the Suckley Hills.

So, understandably, they are not too happy with all the current speculation over the future of small village post offices.

The latest blow to this vital cog in the rural economy has come with the news that over-the-counter payment of benefits may cease.

Pensioners and those living in the countryside will be hardest hit and critics have called the move penny-pinching.

Currently, around three-quarters of all benefits are paid directly into claimants' bank accounts, while the rest - about four million people - collect their money at post offices using special cards.

It is feared the decision by the Department of Work and Pensions to phase out card-based payments by 2010 will be the final blow for many sub-post offices across Britain.

"Certainly, if the post office side of our business was lost, it would be difficult to carry on," said Barbara. "It is a major part of the income.

Realistically we are a `top up' shop, because we do not have the space here to carry a large supply of stock. People drop in for something they have run out of or have forgotten.

"Part of the charm of the place is that it acts as a meeting place. People often call in for a chat as much as anything else. I think if it was to close, it would be a real blow to the village."

It would also be the end of a dream for the Blackburns, who arrived in Longley Green two years ago via Lancashire, Perth, Australia and East Sussex.

Roger had become disenchanted with his career in computers in the UK and so the pair decided to emigrate.

"After two years, we hated it," said Barbara. "It was too hot and you couldn't go anywhere.

"We realised we had made a mistake and so we came back to Britain."

She was working as a care assistant in East Sussex and Roger was doing various jobs, when they saw the chance to take over Suckley Post Office and Village Stores on the internet.

"We had lived at Ross-on-Wye 25 years ago, so in a sense it was a case of coming home," Barbara added.

"We love it here and don't want to leave. To close the post office would be to take the heart out of the village."

As with many rural post offices, the Blackburns live in a property attached to the business, so it's their home as well as their work.

When Kate Hoey, the new chairman of the Countryside Alliance, visited Worcester recently, she said it was one of her campaigning causes to keep country shops and post offices open as a way of maintaining the character of rural communities.

"The Government's plans to create `universal banking' services should ensure that people receiving benefits, together with pensioners, can continue to have their money paid over the counter in cash at their local post office even after the introduction of the Automated Credit Transfer System," she said.

"The Government should urgently consider more radical ideas and measures for expanding and diversifying the range of products, services and functions of local post offices and maintaining them as key focal points of a community."

Post offices are also under threat from Government plans to set up town centre shops to vet passport applications, a task that currently earns branches £12m a year. Although, it has to be said, this side of the business is unlikely to be a top priority for small country post offices.

Tory spokesman Charles Hendry has already accused the Government of inflicting "death by a thousand cuts" on post offices.

To which, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson said no post offices had been closed in rural areas without attempts to find an alternative.

"That doesn't mean they have a right to exist if people are not using them," he added. But how many is `people'? If a village has a population of 2,000, a lot less customers may use it than if it was in a town suburb. But it doesn't mean its service is any less valuable.

Both in outback Britain or outback Australia.