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28
Dec 2024
8: The Knaresborough Post Office saga and a £378,000 debt
In this article, which is part of a series of 12 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2024, we look at the sudden closure of Knaresborough Post Office and questions that continue to linger.
The Post Office did little to restore its tattered reputation in Knaresborough this year with a saga that continues to rumble.
It began with an innocuous looking email from Post Office Ltd on June 10 announcing a consultation on plans to relocate Knaresborough’s only branch from 49 High Street to 34 High Street with the same postmaster Ankur Singh.
But matters escalated quickly. The next day the old premises were repossessed by the landlord, property firm Depho Estates Ltd, which left Knaresborians without a Post Office.
The Stray Ferret then revealed VPS PVT Ltd, a Nottingham-based company that operates about a dozen Post Offices, including Knaresborough’s, had entered liquidation on June 13 owing more than £378,000, including £269,180 to HMRC.
It also owed £33,495 to Lloyds Bank, £24,947 to the Pensions Regulator and £16,092 to Newcastle City Council, amongst others.
Depho's enforcement notice in the old post office window.
According to Companies House, VPS PVT’s sole director was Knaresborough postmaster Mr Singh.
Yet Post Office Ltd’s consultation did not include any reference to the company entering liquidation or ask people for their views on whether they would prefer the business to be run by somebody else.
Questions were being asked within the town about whether Mr Singh was a fit and proper person to operate the town’s Post Office, and why other options weren’t being considered.
Post Office Ltd did not address these matters when the Stray Ferret posed these questions. The consultation trundled on and the organisation finally announced in August it had decided to stick with its plan to reopen the Knaresborough branch under the same postmaster. It said:
After careful consideration of the feedback received during consultation, we remain confident that the layout and location of the new branch will continue to meet customer needs and deliver an excellent service.
Depho Estates, which had said it would be “flabbergasting” if Mr Singh was allowed to continue operating in the town given the sums owed in liquidation, responded to the news by saying it was “absolutely astounded that the Post Office have entrusted Mr Singh to continue dealing with government and pensioner funds”.
Tom Gordon outside Knaresborough's former Post Office.
Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, was equally forthright. He said:
To suggest that the previous operator has to be the one to run a reopened service is astounding.
How can Post Office Ltd, owned by the government, allow individuals who owe hundreds of thousands to HMRC to run contracts? When parliament returns, I will look to make this point to the postal minister at the earliest opportunity.
Peter Lacey, an executive member of business group Knaresborough & District Chamber, was more measured. He said the chamber hoped “the level and continuity of service that is provided exceeds that of previous years under the same management”.
The branch eventually re-opened on September 20, more than three months after its sudden closure — but even the new location proved controversial, as the branch had moved from a standalone building to a space within a pharmacy.
Mr Gordon described the decision to host it in another business as “a half-baked plan that will hurt essential health services and provide a diminished Post Office service”.
The branch is now based in Pharmacy+Health on High Street.
Since then Andrew Hart, the sub-postmaster in Starbeck who catered for many customers during the Knaresborough branch closure, has been waging a campaign to get answers on the application of the fit and proper test and the validity of a consultation that did not appear to address concerns.
Mr Hart said:
I intend to carry on asking these questions until the whole mindset and culture within Post Office Ltd changes. Their response is not good enough.
Andrew Hart and colleague Asma Ola outside the Red Box in Starbeck.
Mr Hart questions whether the ongoing national scandal has made Post Office Ltd overly risk averse in its dealings with local postmasters.
It seems ironic that it has fallen to one of the organisation's own postmasters to raise this concern.
Whether Mr Hart will get answers in 2025 remains to be seen.
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