A meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s Thirsk and Malton Constituency Committee saw scores of people turn out to support a campaign to reinstate post office services in Helmsley following the closure of the town’s branch with its host store Costcutter going into administration last August.

Helmsley councillor George Jabbour told the meeting at the North York Moors National Park Authority’s base in the town there was “no immiment solution” to the sudden loss of postal services in the town last August.

He said a mobile post office branch had proved extremely popular when it visited the town and while work was ongoing to provide a permanent solution, residents and traders needed access to the services immediately.

Coun Jabbour added a mobile branch which served villages in the area could and should have been tailored to accommodate Helmsley.

Local resident and businesswoman Carolyn Frank said she was “disgusted that an award-winning and vibrant market town” had been left without “an essential service”.

She said the more than 100 independent businesses in the town needed access to both postal and banking services to stay open.

Ms Frank said: “It’s not an inconvenience or a service that would be nice to have. It’s an outright risk to businesses being here by Christmas 2023 or Helmsley having empty units where viable businesses once stood.”

She urged Post Office bosses to take responsibility for having ignored warnings from traders not to “downgrade” the town’s post office from a standalone outlet to one inside a convenience store.

The meeting was told online banking was not an option for small and cash-based businesses, such as the town’s numerous cafes and takeaway, and with the town’s ageing population, access to cash remained paramount.

The meeting heard the town’s residents and traders had been promised Helmsley would still have banking facilities after Barclays closed its branch last year.

Comparable towns, such as Grassington, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, had a thriving post office, councillors were told.

A senior Post Office manager told the meeting the firm was fully aware of the impact of the closure of a branch in rural areas as it was “the life and soul of many communities”, but added the Government demanded the service was run as a commercial entity.

He said changes in customer demand had meant the post office branch in Helmsley had been moved into Costcutter to make it viable.

He said although mobile Post Office van trial had not worked out and that while implementing temporary solutions would prove “very costly”, it was prepared to make Helmsley its only exception in the UK to fund a limited service if a potential postmaster came forward to host a counter.

He added he was optimistic a potential host for the counter would take on the lease of the former Costcutter premises as negotiations were continuing.

Helmsley: Residents of Yorkshire market town hold crisis meeting after loss of only bank and post office