South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has this week blasted Royal Bank of Scotland over broken promises over mobile banking following the planned closure of local bank branches.
RBS announced last year that it planned to close nearly a quarter of all its branches in Scotland, including those in Gretna, Lockerbie, Annan and Langholm.
A final decision on whether to close Gretna has been delayed until 2019 whilst the remaining three in Dumfries and Galloway will all close this year.
At the time of the closure RBS claimed that adequate mobile banking services will be put in place however details of the arrangement have now been published by the bank and show that that each town faced with a branch closure will have the mobile bank visit for just 40 minutes each week.
The timetable shows –
Day: Monday
Stop: Annan
Arrival: 11:55
Departure: 12:35
Parking: Aldi Car Park, Butts Street, Annan DG12 5AL
Day: Thursday
Stop: Annan
Arrival: 10:30
Departure: 11:10
Parking: Aldi Car Park, Butts Street, Annan DG12 5AL
Day: Thursday
Stop: Langholm
Arrival: 11:55
Departure: 12:35
Parking: Langholm Day Centre Car Park, Charles Street, Langholm DG13 0AA
Day: Thursday
Stop: Lockerbie
Arrival: 14:00
Departure: 14:40
Parking: Tesco Car Park, Goods Station Road, Lockerbie DG11 2D
In addition Wankockhead and Moffat have had their mobile banking axed altogether with Kirkcudbright being cut from two days to just one.
South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said, “When RBS announced it was going to close the branches in Langholm, Lockerbie and Annan the community rightly expected to see mobile banking becoming common place in those towns to partly mitigate the impact of the closures. It is shocking to discover that most towns with pending closures will have just 40 minutes of service. This is a yet another betrayal by RBS of customers and the community.”
“It’s also clear that RBS aren’t properly investing in mobile banks as some areas that currently have mobile banking are seeing that either being axed or reduced”.
“The problem is even although they own the bank, the UK Government failed to intervene to stop he closures and RBS now think they can get anyway with doing anything they want. I am calling on RBS to fulfil its promise to the people of Dumfries and Galloway and for the UK Government to stop neglecting its duties and step in”
“Providing proper mobile banking service to the region is the very least RBS and the U.K. Government can do after they have axed so many branches in the area. RBS proposed schedule is far too narrow to allow families and businesses to receive proper banking help.”
