The unusual situation came about after Walstead exited Hanger One at the former York Mailing facility last year, but continued to run a 48pp short-grain Lithoman press in the adjacent Hanger Two.

As Printweek revealed last month, after Linda Boyes took over Hanger One for her start-up commercial web business York Media, an issue arose with the gas and electricity supplies for Walstead York because Hanger One houses the master utility meters.

At the time Boyes said she had repeatedly flagged the key switchover dates of 1 July for gas, and 1 August for electricity with Walstead.

Despite multiple requests Walstead Group has declined to comment on the situation, or the future for the site.

Industry sources have questioned whether Walstead York will ever start up again.

Work previously printed at the factory has been absorbed at its other sites, including Peterborough and Bicester which both also run short-grain web presses.

Printweek understands that press crews from Walstead York have been redeployed at Bicester, which runs multiple web presses and is home to the huge 2.64m-wide Sunday 5000 64pp short-grain web that was previously at YM Chantry.