Move to save Whitburn bank Branch axed in more cutbacks
RBS has been accused of showing “contempt” for their customers in West Lothian by closing another branch in the area.
The bank has announced Whitburn’s branch will shut in October, leaving just three in the county.
The news comes less than a year after RBS closed branches in Broxburn and West Calder. Those in Armadale, Fauldhouse and Harthill were shut in 2014.
A spokesman for RBS said the company had taken the “difficult decision” to close the Whitburn branch along with 29 others around Scotland.
“The way people choose to bank with us has changed radically over the last few years,” he said. “Between 2010 and 2015, mobile and online transactions have increased by over 400 per cent and mobile transactions alone have increased by 1350 per cent. Since 2011 we have seen the number of transactions in the Whitburn branch increase by five per cent.
“These customers are actively choosing to bank in different ways, with 53.9 per cent of customers choosing to use digital banking options.” He continued: “We are communicating with our customers affected by the closure and 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 customers have time to consider the right banking options. We know not all of our customers are comfortable and familiar with using online or mobile banking, so we have created a new specialist taskforce of digital experts who will be dedicated to supporting customers.”
The closest branch for Whitburn customers will now be in Bathgate and RBS banks in Linlithgow and Livingston also remain open.
The company said many of the 176 Scotland- wide employees affected would be offered roles elsewhere in the business.
SNP MSP Fiona Hyslop has launched a petition backed by backed by SNP councillors Mary Dickson and Jim Dickson, to keep the branch open. She said: “The Royal Bank of Scotland Building in Whitburn is in the heart of the town offering easy banking access to the increasing number of older residents in Whitburn who live and shop locally. Some 46 per cent of customers who use the Whitburn RBS branch do not use digital banking and many may be older people or parents with young children who cannot always make the four-mile journey to the closest RBS Branch in Bathgate.
“That is why I and my SNP colleagues at West Lothian Council are petitioning for Royal Bank of Scotland’s Whitburn branch to remain open.”