Village’s ATM to go due to vandalism, low usage
One of the most vandalised ANZ ATMs in the country will be removed as a Lower Hutt suburb’s banking exodus continues.
The machine at Wainuiomata’s Homedale Village will be shut down in March next year when its lease expires.
The ATM will not be replaced with ANZ citing low usage and frequent vandalism.
An ANZ spokesman said it was in the top five per cent of the most heavily vandalised machines in its nationwide ‘‘fleet’’.
The most recent attack on the machine happened this week, leaving the bank with a $1700 repair bill.
Banking services were becoming scarce in Lower Hutt’s largest suburb. Kiwibank’s over-the-counter services will be withdrawn when its host business Wainuiomata Video Shop closes at the end of the month. A New Zealand Post agency hosted in the same store will also close.
Kiwibank said decreasing overthe-counter transactions meant the service was not viable.
ANZ shut Wainuiomata’s last full-service bank branch in June.
Hutt South MP Chris Bishop called the removal of the ATM a ‘‘retrograde decision’’.
Wainuiomata was going through a period of growth and it ‘‘didn’t make any sense’’ for banks to be removing services.
Several high-investment projects have recently been announced or were under way, including new subdivisions, a mall redevelopment, a $50 million retirement complex and a $24m investment in Wainuiomata High School.
Bishop said physical banking services were particularly important for older residents, many of whom did not use online services. He had started a petition, which had garnered 100 signatures, to save the Kiwibank outlet.
Local chemist Clive Cannons has been based in Wainuiomata since 1986 and said the suburb has been through its ups and downs.
He said an increasingly cashless society was a sign of the times but banks and ATMs attracted shoppers and helped foster a sense of community.
‘‘When one business goes, you have less of an incentive to come down to the shops and you don’t connect with people like you used to in the old days. That’s the tragedy – the loss of community, rather than the loss of services.’’
Two ANZ ATMs will continue to service Wainuiomata in addition to four other bank ATMs on Queen St, the suburb’s main shopping area.
BNZ recently replaced a mall ATM with a machine to make its services available outside the centre’s opening hours.