The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Peak of frustration as ‘busy’ bank closes
NatWest has shut its Bakewell branch claiming it had just six regular customers, but locals question the data. By Madeleine Ross
The Peak District lost its final bank branch on Thursday. NatWest shut up shop in Bakewell, Derbyshire, after decades – justifying the decision by claiming that the branch had just six regular customers.
It means that the national park that covers 555 square miles no longer has a single bank branch.
But when Telegraph Money visited the market town on the eve of the closure there was a steady stream of customers and local business owners popping in and out of the bank – despite the miserable weather.
Outraged locals and the town’s MP are calling into question the figures that banks are using to justify closing branches across the country.
Banks have been closing physical branches at an alarming rate, with 5,835 shutting their doors permanently since January 2015. NatWest has closed more branches than any other group, shutting 1,329 since January 2015, consumer group Which? found.
The closure in Bakewell means that, for locals, the nearest NatWest branch is half an hour away in Chesterfield.
Customer Alan Elsmore, 86, says: “It’s absolutely dreadful. I’ve finally succumbed and gone to online banking, but I didn’t want to do it. I am scared of it.”
When the bank announced the closure, it said just six personal banking customers were using the service regularly in 2022. Yet it said that 181 business customers had used the branch on a regular basis in the same year.
The day Telegraph Money visited, there were more than 10 customers at the branch before 10.27am – it had only opened its doors at 10am. Locals said that the branch was always busy and that there were often queues out of the door.
Sarah Dines, the MP for the town, says she asked NatWest what it meant to be a “regular customer”, and the bank replied it meant a person had visited every week in a six-month period.
“It’s as clear as mud,” she says. “If someone goes to Bognor Regis on holiday or has a hip operation, then they are not a regular customer, even if they have been there for 25 weeks out of 26.”
She says that measuring the branch use over a period when the elderly and most vulnerable were not back to their normal lives, post pandemic, was skewing the data. The Derbyshire dales has one of the oldest populations in the country, according to Office for National Statistics data, with more than a third of residents over the age of 60.
Before the closure, Ms Dines had been demanding a four-week extension. The Conservative MP launched a petition, which garnered nearly 4,000 signatures, and presented it at NatWest’s London headquarters.
The Financial Conduct Authority was granted powers to pause closures last year, until adequate cash access has been guaranteed. When Ms Dines raised the closure in Parliament, the Prime Minister said a new cash deposit machine would be installed. But her efforts have failed to reverse the bank’s decision.
Peter Owen, a former academic who lives in the town, says: “I’ve been a customer of this bank for nearly 50 years. But basically the bank is saying that people like me, and the older people in there, are non-profitable customers, so b----- you. It’s as simple as that.”
Mike Pindar, 75, a former interior decorator and architect, says he has been a NatWest customer at the branch for decades. He says: “The thing is about this bank is that it has been so busy. It’s the last one left in a big area. What I was disgusted about is that the person in charge of the bank is peddling this thing about only six people using the bank. It’s totally plucked from the fresh air. It’s meaningless.”
The town is home to the last remaining cattle market in the area, which is run by auctioneer Alastair Sneddon. Many of his customers still want to use cheques, he says, and after the branch closes, it is going to be more difficult to cash them. He says: “There are plenty of farms that are not particularly well connected to broadband, so computer banking isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.”
Mark Wakeman, who owns the pet shop in the town, says: “The internet’s down. It’s been down all day. They [his customers] have been going up to the cash machine and getting cash. They won’t be able to do that.”
Nicola Rose, who works in a bakery, says: “It’s going to hit the older people really hard.” Freya Kenworthy, her colleague, adds: “They’re worried that cash is going to completely go. They’re always saying, ‘Oh, you young kids don’t use cash,’ but they live by it.”
A NatWest spokesman said that while the bank recognised that it was important not to leave anyone behind when branches closed, most of its customers are shifting to mobile and online banking.
He said: “We take our responsibility seriously to support the people who face challenges in moving online, so we are investing to provide them with support and alternatives that work for them.”