MP campaigns to save branch It’s the wrong choice, says Dr Cameron
Dr Lisa Cameron has vowed to fight to save Strathaven’s RBS branch and slammed the bank’s refusal to reconsider controversial closures as the “wrong choice”.
The bank in Common Green has been earmarked for closure after being included in a long list of UK branches facing the axe.
Despite widespread cross-party criticism, RBS bosses are pushing ahead with plans to shut a quarter of its operations in Scotland – a total of 62 – with the loss of 158 jobs.
Appearing before MPs on the Scottish affairs committee earlier this month, RBS officials said the decision was made as more customers moved online – and not been taken to save money.
The closures are expected to make annual savings of £9.5 million.
Concerns have been raised locally about the impact the closure will have on small businesses, the elderly and vulnerable members of rural communities.
Dr Cameron, MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, said: “RBS are right to admit that axing 62 branches across Scotland will be painful to customers, including many who will lose their only local bank.
“It will also be painful to the hundreds of RBS branch staff across local communities who stand to lose their jobs.
“The proposal to close branches is not just a ‘difficult’ and ‘painful’ choice – it is the wrong choice, based on misleading figures and a flawed business case.
“If it goes ahead it will have huge consequences for local people and businesses – so it is no surprise that RBS have found the scrutiny and backlash from communities uncomfortable.”
She added: “I will continue to campaign to keep the banks open in Strathaven and Lesmahagow, and I will continue to pressure the UK Government to do the right thing, and take action as the majority shareholder.
“We collectively saved RBS in the bailout in 2008. We did not do this for RBS to turn its back on rural communities in my constituency.”
RBS boss Les Matheson claimed that fewer than one per cent of their customers go into a branch on a weekly basis.
Mr Matheson, chief executive of personal and business banking, told the committee: “We understand that customers are concerned about the change, that customers find the change difficult, and we are committed to helping them through that process, and we have lots of ways of doing that.”
Union Unite has hit out at the closures decision, saying senior figures at the bank were “filling their boots while they devastate local communities”.
Management admitted in a leaked staff memo that its controversial branch closure plan will be “painful” for customers.
As well as 62 RBS branches, the network will also close 197 NatWest bases, with around 680 redundancies.