One high street financial services provider will shutter four more branches this week in the latest round of branch closings.
This will take the number of branches that high street bank Barclays will have closed within the last six weeks to a total of 22. One of the four slated to be closed is the Rhayader, Powys branch of Barclays.
Bank officials had been hammered with pressure to rethink its decision to close the Rhayader branch, yet they are still going ahead with the plans despite being inundated with 1,500 signatures in a petition to keep it open. Signatories to the disregarded petition included many local policymakers such as Liberal Democarat MP Roger Williams for Brecon and Radnorshire.
MP Williams had set down an early day motion to call upon Barclays to desist in its plans to close the branch; however the motion didn’t attract the support needed to make a difference.
Now with the branch set to close by the end of the week, customers now face a round trip to Llaindloes of 22 miles in order to continue using a Barclays branch to conduct their banking business.
Campaign for Community Banking Services head Derek French commented on Barclays’ decision, stating that unlike in the past when banks could be swayed from their plans to close a local branch through a rising groundswell of local support, those days seem to be gone.
The decision to close a branch seems to be set in stone in the current day and age, said Mr French. Even in the event of a closure resulting in the loss of banking services for a community, the government seems to not be terribly concerned, the community banking organisation head added.
Mr French expressed the hope that the Government’s Independent Banking Commission will take note of the branch closure issue when it submits its report this coming April.