Totnes snubbed as banking hub

Bank group says town can cope with cash machines

A South Devon MP has said she is ‘deeply disappointed’ after a national banking organisation turned its back on Totnes.

The town’s Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden has been lobbying LINK for months after it emerged that Totnes was to lose its last bank.

Last September Lloyds announced plans to close its Totnes branch, leaving the town without access to banking services. Ms Voaden then submitted a ‘cash access review’ to the public body which decides if an area requires a banking hub, expecting a positive response.

But now LINK has said Totnes can manage with cash machines and the Post Office as well as services in Brixham, Dartmouth and Paignton.

Ms Voaden said many local businesses and vulnerable residents had raised the alarm about the consequences of Totnes losing access to banking services. Armed with a petition of more than 1,200 signatures, she appealed for the government to intervene.

However, now that Lloyds Totnes has shut its doors, LINK has announced the outcome of its review, finding again that the town does not require a banking hub.

The decision has ‘no grounding in the lived realities of residents, businesses and the wider rural community’ said the MP. She added: “I am deeply disappointed with LINK’s decision. Their response to my appeal did not adequately reflect the issues I raised, nor the lived realities of residents, businesses and the wider rural community that relies on Totnes.

“But while it is tempting to criticise LINK, their decision is symptomatic of years of successive governments turning a blind eye to the impact of such closures on rural communities. How many ministers have missed the chance to act when banking services in rural areas like ours disappeared?”

Ms Voaden said that while the outcome was a setback for Totnes, it did not mark the end of her campaign.

“I will be pushing the government to urgently review the criteria used to grant a banking hub,” she said. “The current focus just on access to cash is far too narrow, and will lead to more cases where places that need banking services, like Totnes, are denied because they don’t tick the right box.

“There is more to a bank than cash – and it’s time the legislation reflected that.”