MP demands rethink over plans to close town bank

An MP is calling for an urgent rethink of plans to close the Frodsham branch of Barclay’s Bank.

Mike Amesbury has written to the chief executive of Barclay’s Bank and business secretary Greg Clark after the banking giant announced plans to axe its Main Street branch on February 23 next year in a letter sent to customers on Friday.

The move comes after a spate of other bank closures in the town, notably HSBC last year, and the axing of NatWest only last month.

In the letter, Barclay’s blamed ‘a low and falling level of transactions’ at the branch and said its Frodsham customers could use its Widnes Simms Cross and Stockton Heath branches instead – a choice which Mr Amesbury branded ‘unacceptable’ due to the ‘special circumstances’ surrounding the new Mersey Gateway tolls.

He said: “Crossing the bridge to Widnes will incur Frodsham residents an extra £4 just to do their banking, not to mention the huge inconvenience it will cause.

“If they’re using public transport they will face journeys of up to an hour each way, with sizeable walks in-between bus and train changes.”

He added: “Every community is different. Frodsham is semi-rural with a large percentage of elderly residents and it’s now bordered by a toll bridge.

“Areas like Frodsham don’t have the transport links or even the broadband speeds for internet banking that you’d find in major urban areas.

“These are special circumstances and I’m calling on Barclay’s to rethink this urgently and not abandon this community, rather than simply adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to the way it does business.”