Community fight to keep last south city bank open
South Alive is calling on Westpac to reconsider its decision to close the Invercargill South branch. Local reporting is vital to a thriving and connected community. Help us keep telling Southland's stories by making a contribution.
South City resident Jane Greer is up in arms at the closure of Westpac's Invercargill South branch.
She and her husband have been customers of the bank for more than 50 years and said she visited the branch one day to find it closed.
Les Mackle, who has been banking with Westpac since 1996, said he's "brassed off" by the decision and the suggestion that he should travel to Kelvin St or Windsor to access services that used to be available on his doorstep.
South Alive has launched a petition calling on Westpac to review its decision to close the only full-banking branch in Invercargill's south city. The bank closed its doors when New Zealand went into lockdown, but never reopened them because the building didn't meet Westpac's earthquake standards, a spokesperson said.
South Invercargill Urban Rejuvenation Charitable Trust (South Alive) deputy chair Margaret Cook said the branch offered a vital service to a community where more than 30 per cent of residents didn not have access to Internet banking.
"We don't agree with the reasons they gave for the closure." Closing the branch also raised fears that businesses had lost faith in a neighbourhood South Alive had worked hard to improve, Cook said.
"We thought the closure of this branch would support the idea that big business doesn't care about our community.
"There's a feeling out there that we've been done again."
When South Alive was established in 2012, the organisation surveyed South City residents to gauge their community pride.
Only 35 per cent of respondents reacted positively, but after two years of lobbying for investment in the neighbourhood, that number jumped to 82 per cent.
Cook said the staff at Westpac Invercargill South had been part of that work by supporting South Alive events and upgrades to the shopping centre around the branch.
South Alive deputy chair Margaret Cook is disappointed that Westpac decided to close its South City branch. South Alive is also a
Westpac customer and lists the company as a sponsor on its website.
"We've got a vested interest in this," Cook said. She was unable to say if the petition may affect their sponsorship.
The petition is available online, or can be signed at the South Alive office in Grace St, and Cook was pleased with the number of people who had signed so far.
Grey Power Southland office manager Stephanie de Ruyter supported the petition and didn't believe South Alive would call for a change of heart unless it was needed.
"They do not take a petition lightly," she said. De Ruyter was concerned that banking would be made more difficult for elderly residents with impaired vision, limited mobility and dexterity, and little computer literacy - for whom online banking wasn't an option.
"It can only strengthen their sense of exclusion."
South City residents argue that Windsor or Kelvin St is too far for elderly clients to travel if they want to use Westpac's branch services.
The bank should have kept a physical presence in South City as a customer service to its long-standing clients, De Ruyter said.
A Westpac spokesperson said the five staff members who worked at the Invercargill South branch had been redeployed to the Kelvin St and Windsor branches.
There were no other plans to change the bank's presence in Invercargill, the spokesperson said.
"We'll continue to support our customers in the Invercargill South community, including offering phone appointments for those who don't have Internet banking and are unable to come into branch."