A post office forced to close yesterday due to a lack of staff has been sold off.

The Post Office moved from Maidstone's Bank Street to WHSmith in Week Street in August 2016 and customers were assured there would be no change in services, aside of the new location.

In a statement released at the time Post Office Ltd said: "The service will still be run by us and you’ll be served by the same branch team."

However, this month the Post Office completed a franchise sale for the town service to the retailer and management responsibility transferred to WHSmith on Tuesday, February 12.

All previous staff in this Maidstone branch have since been replaced by a new team.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) suggested WHSmith are offering a starting salary of £7.83 per hour.

In November, it was revealed 74 post offices across the UK were set to be sold to the stationery company, sparking a day of action by the CWU.

According to the union, this move has put an estimated 800 jobs at risk in total.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “While we cannot give out details of individuals’ decisions, we of course talked to all our employees affected by this change. Employees had the right to transfer their employment in line with TUPE legislation, or to look at other opportunities, including redeployment or voluntary settlement.”

The spokesman confirmed there were no compulsory redundancies.

Yesterday, only two trainee staff were at work. Legally, three fully qualified employees are needed to open a Post Office store, so the trainees could only sort and send letters - not serve customers.

One of the them, Jade McPherson, said: "We have still come in so we can send the post at 12.30pm and get passports sent off. But we aren't qualified to run the post office on our own."

She added: "The last two qualified people left on Monday."

A WHSmith spokesperson said: "Unfortunately we have experienced some initial staffing issues but are in the process of resolving these. Services and staffing have resumed as normal today."

In the Post Office's statement of 2016 outlining the move from Bank Street, the spokesperson added: “Our customers’ needs continue to change and we are responding to that, taking the right action to sustain our services for years to come.

“We believe the WHSmith premises will provide an excellent host location for Maidstone Town Post Office. The WHSmith retail offer will complement the wide range of Post Office products and services, which will continue to be available following the move.”