A petition with more than 250 signatures from local people angry about the planned closure of the Middleton branch of Yorkshire Bank is to be sent to bank chiefs.
Yorkshire Bank is proposing to rationalise its services and close its Middleton Park Circus branch on June 20, with local residents being told to attend the Hunslet or Morley branch instead. The move will leave Middleton without a bank.
But local residents have reacted angrily to the move. Carmela Walsh has co-ordinated a petition against the proposals, saying the move will badly affect many of Middleton’s older residents. She told South Leeds Life:
“There’s been a bank there for 50 years or more – and this move will inconvenience an awful lot of people, particularly the older ones. People on scooters cannot go to Hunslet, if they did, they would have to go on scooters to the bus stop and then what?
“As for the cash machines, we can’t pay our bills with them and I don’t have internet access. Online banking isn’t an option for a lot of of people around here.”
Carmela, 75, is calling on the bank to explain why it has taken the decision. She added:
“I am sure the decision is cut and dried, but I want to show them the inconvenience their decision has caused.”
The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks aim to cut 1,400 jobs by 2015, their owner National Australia Bank (NAB) announced last year. The decision followed a strategic review of its UK operations.
A notice on the door at the Middleton Park branch urges customers to use their Hunslet branch from June.
Thanks for organising this and happy to offer my full support to the petition.
We need to have the bank in Middleton, and we should say with one voice –
keep it local !