YP Letters: Hold banks to account over the closure of local branches

AT the same time as I read John Healey’s excellent piece (The Yorkshire Post, April 7) on his personal crusade to put an end to the big banks closing their village and town branches, I received letter from a Lloyds Bank manager about the branches that I use in Middlesbrough and Marton-in-Cleveland.

In his letter I was informed that as from August 16 the Marton branch will close.

The reason given was the widespread use of internet banking.

This closure in August will mean that as a faithful Lloyds Bank account holder who can draw on experiences going back first to the York County Savings Bank, then the Trustee Savings Bank, then Lloyds/TSB and then Lloyds Bank (all with the same bank account number), I have witnessed the withdrawal of my personal banking services from Whitby, Northallerton and Yarm.

To add insult to injury, the closure of the Marton branch is particularly difficult to accept as this is the last branch bank in either Nunthorpe or Marton, the latter being only a mile away and within easy cycling or walking distance!

I wish MP John Healey every success, but I fear trying to keep branches open in our communities is already a lost cause.

Yet another local place to visit to talk to a familiar face and hold back the loneliness that unfortunately besets us older people living alone will be no more.

The manager of the two banks, who I do not know, offers his apologies saying “I’m sorry for any inconvenience the closure of Marton bank may cause”.

I assume that the Lloyds Bank headquarters will, after August, adjust the employees’ salary if, instead of being in charge of two banks, he will only have the one. I think I know the answer, don’t you?

All of this to take place against a background of ever more housebuilding and an increased local populatiom as highlighted by Mr Healey.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

FULL marks to John Healey for speaking out against bank closures – let’s hope more MPs back him and put pressure on the Treasury to insist, at the very least, that alternative facilities are provided.

The first I knew that my local Santander branch was shutting down was when I received a computer-generated letter saying a consultation had taken place. Who did they consult? Themselves? Names please.