The Bank of Scotland have revealed they will not reconsider their decision to close the bank’s Carnoustie branch from April of next year.
Angus South MSP Graeme Dey met with a representative of the bank in Edinburgh today(Monday) to highlight the impact the planned closure is going to have and the anger locally at the proposal.
He said –
“Sadly, the Bank of Scotland made clear that there will be no u-turn.
“Carnoustie is in the bottom third of its branch performance table and the direction of travel around footfall and cashpoint usage is a negative one.
“Essentially the bank is reducing its branch footprint and investing in other areas such an digital and phone banking and Carnoustie, as one of the least busy branches across the network, is paying the price.
“I remain of the view that this is the wrong decision, especially when almost 600 of the customers who will be impacted only use this branch and have no other way to carry out transactions.
“But this is a commercial decision and not even the UK Government, which controls banking regulation, has the power to force banks to maintain their branch network.
“The Bank of Scotland has given a commitment to look, where possible, at any reasonable mitigation measures which could be implemented where the decision to pull out of the town is going to have a pronounced effect on a customer or customers.
“So any constituents who’ll be seriously, adversely affected can either approach the bank directly or contact my office and I’ll take up the matter for them.’’
