No access to free cash on more than 300 shopping streets across rural Britain
MORE than 300 rural shopping streets are over half a mile from a cash point, data has revealed, with villagers pleading for better access to their money.
Around 34 people a day contact the “request an ATM” scheme seeking ready cash, according to the UK’S cash machine network Link.
It found that in 318 retail centres classed as having four or fewer shops, there was no access to free cash, defined as “a free ATM or Post Office counter within one kilometre”.
Free-to-use cash machine closures, along with bank branch closures, have fuelled concerns about the availability of physical money, particularly in remote and deprived areas.
Between January 2018 and October this year, the number of free ATMS across the country fell by 15 per cent, from 54,500 to 46,500.
Link revealed that of the more than 2,700 requests for a cash dispenser made since the request scheme launch in October, some 2,200 were from England, 200 from Wales, 300 from Scotland and 50 from Northern Ireland.
Communities can apply for a cash machine in their area through their MP or council, or ask Link for help to get free access to cash.
Link said that, given the interest from communities, banks and building societies have agreed up to a further £4 million in additional funding for ATMS in 2020, on top of the £1million the scheme already has in the bank.
Link has so far visited around 50 locations, and has agreed in principle to commission more than 20 new ATMS.
The market town of Grassington, North Yorks, where the last bank closed in May, will be one of the beneficiaries, along with Holme Wood in Bradford, Battle in East Sussex, Bungay in Suffolk, Preston-next-wingham in Kent and Cymmer, Wales.
But Link said many of the requests have are from very small communities with limited retail activity, and where an ATM may not always be viable.
It came as villagers in Durness, Sutherland, celebrated no longer having to travel 100 miles to a cash machine as one was installed last week.
Research by the consumer group Which? earlier this year found that there are no cash machines in 130 postcodes in the UK, meaning that 115,741 people struggle to withdraw physical money.
John Howells, Link’s chief executive, said: “Link is delighted with the response to the community initiative.
“New ATMS are beginning to open, and we have many more planned for the new year.
“Many of the requests have been made in locations where an ATM may not be viable.
“By publishing this data, we hope that it will be helpful to organisations who are considering developing new innovations other than ATMS to provide access to cash, such as the work by Paypoint, the retail terminal specialist, looking at the provision of cash directly from retailers’ tills.”