POL00107698
POL00107698
‘st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing
148 Old Street
LONDON
ECIv oHa
‘The Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP Our Ref: ECT 526/11
MP for North East Hampshire
House of Commons
LONDON
SWIA 0AA
9 January 2012
Dear Mr Arbuthnot
Thank you for your letter of 15 December addressed to Moya Greene, Chief Executive, Royal Mail Group Ltd about Odiham Post
Office”. As Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, Moya has asked me to reply to you direct.
I fully recognise how important having continued access to Post Office services is for our customers and I do understand your
constituents’ concerns about their local branch.
lam sure you will understand that I cannot go into specific detail about Mr Kemp's position as this is a contractual matter
between us. However I can confirm that Mr Kemp is not a Post Office employee but has been operating Odiham Post Office on
a temporary subpostmaster contract since 2009. Prior to that I understand that he worked in the branch as an employee of the
former subpostmaster, so I do realise that Mr Kemp is well known in the local community.
Following the cessation of Mr Kemp's contract, the branch closed temporarily from 9-12 December whilst we found a
replacement ternporary subpostmaster to run the service. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, the branch closed
again between 16-21 December but reopened on 22 December, since which time there have been no further problems. I know
how important the Post Office is to our customers, especially at Christmas, and I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused on
this occasion.
Moving forward it remains our intention to retain Post Office services in Odinam and appoint a permanent subpostmaster, which
will also help us to stabilise the service for our customers. The vacancy has been advertised and our local field tearn will also be
revisiting the area in the next few weeks to see if there are any parties interested in operating a service in Odiham.
Tuming toi.
Tuming to your more general comments about the Horizon computer system, we handle large sums of public money, as well as
the money entrusted to us by the 20 million people who visit our 11,500 branches each week. There are a small number of
previous and existing subpostmasters, including Mrs Hamilton who used to run South Wamborough Post Office, who allege that
financial discrepancies at their branch are due to a fault with the system. We are also aware of the activities of a group called
Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance, JFSA. There has been no evidence to support any of the allegations and we have no
reason to doubt the integrity of the system, which we remain confident, is robust and fit for purpose.
I do hope that the above information has clarified our position but if you do have any further concems, then please do let me
know.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Vennelis
Managing Director
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