More branches to close as we turn to online banking
NatWest is to close nine branches across Kent, leaving some customers with a journey of seven miles to their nearest bank.
Three west Kent branches will close as part of parent Royal Bank of Scotland’s latest costsaving measures.
Branches in Bearsted and Borough Green will close next June, while Staplehurst, which shut following a ram raid in July, will never reopen with security concerns cited as well as falling transactions.
NatWest has already disappeared from Marden, Headcorn, Snodland, Coxheath and Lenham in the past two years.
The bank has retained counters in Maidstone’s High Street and Sutton Road, Larkfield and West Malling.
Marden villagers will now have to travel seven miles to Paddock Wood, people in Headcorn will have to go the same distance to Sutton Road, while Staplehurst residents face a five-mile trip to Cranbrook. In Bearsted customers will have to drive three miles into Maidstone and Borough Green’s nearest branch is four miles away in Seal.
Falling transactions and an increase in online banking – which is up 400% from 2010 – were given as the reasons for most of the closures, although in Staplehurst – which has seen an 18% fall in activity since 2011 – staff safety was RBS’s main concerns after ram raids in July and in 2007.
A NatWest spokesman said: “We are communicating with our customers affected by the closure and proactively contacting vulnerable and regular branch customers. We have listened closely to feedback from local communities and have extended the time between announcing our decision and the branch closure to six months.
“This has been done in order to ensure our customers have time to consider the right banking options for them.”
The bank has an agreement with the Post Office for customers to pay money in, take it out, check balances and get coinage.