Buxton Post Office overwhelmed by love after ITV aired Mr Bates vs The Post Office

ITV’s new drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the extraordinary story of the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

Since the series aired there have been calls by some to boycott the Post Office.

The National Federation of Subpostmasters issued a statement which said: “The Horizon scandal is the biggest miscarriage of justice ever seen in the United Kingdom.

“As postmasters ourselves, it has been harrowing to watch. Whilst the reaction from the general public to what the victims have experienced is understandable, the outpouring of feeling towards Post Office Ltd (PO) for their role in this scandal across social media may be detrimental to our businesses today, by association.

“Postmasters have already been the most affected by this scandal, so we urge the general public to continue to support your local post office.

“Post offices are the beating heart of local communities.”

John Woods, postmaster for the Higher Buxton Post Office, shared this message on the Post Office’s Facebook page.

Since then there have been dozens of comments from people who all stand by him.

One said: “We are very fortunate to have our Higher Buxton Post Office, excellent friendly service from John and his staff, I do hope people will continue to support their local branches.”

Another said: “Supporting you is precisely what we should all be doing. Support the postmasters by using our post offices and supporting those affected by the Horizon scandal by signing the relevant petitions. Higher Buxton PO is an absolute treasure.”

He said: “I'm blown away by all the heartfelt messages of support.“It means a great deal to both my wife Jenny, myself and my much-loved colleagues too, who we could do nothing without.”

John took over the Post Office in 2004 and says he and his wonderful team have done the job to the best of their ability over the years and were never caught up in the scandal.

In the 1990s hundreds of people were held liable for financial discrepancies thrown up by faulty Fujitsu accounting software that made it appear as though money was missing from their branches.

This led to more than 700 convictions, criminal prosecutions and - in some cases - prison sentences.

Dozens of victims died before they saw justice.

John said: “I have been contacted quite regularly by solicitors asking me about this but thankfully there have never been any losses or human error input we couldn’t explain.

“I know this sadly wasn’t the case for hundreds of others but for people looking to boycott the Post Office now it will do more harm than good.

“We are part of the community and work for the community.

John, who is looking to retire soon as he is 65, said: “If I could go back in time to when I was 40 and just about to take over the Post Office I would absolutely do it all over again and nothing would stop me.”