THE county has gone from boasting five branches to being left with a bare two inside 12 months, but Barclays Bank has confirmed that its Builth Wells premises will remain open – at least for now.
Builth has itself been reduced from four banks to just one in recent years – with HSBC, NatWest and Santander all disappearing from the high street.
And fears have been swirling in recent weeks that the last remaining institution could be set to shut its doors too. The Broad Street bank already operates reduced hours compared to previous years – it is shut completely on Thursdays and Saturdays and is open from 9.30am-2.30pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and from 10am-2.30pm on Wednesdays.
The Llandrindod Wells branch closed in August last year, while Barclays branches in Welshpool and Newtown both brought the shutters down this September (Welshpool closed on September 16, Newtown a week later, on September 23).
Barclays said they’d made the decisions on the Montgomeryshire locations because, in total, 13 regular Welshpool customers and 30 Newtown customers “use this branch exclusively for their banking and do not interact with us in other ways”. The other remaining Barclays branch open in Powys is located in Brecon.
Barclays this week offered confirmation that its Builth branch will remain open. Rumours that the town centre branch is to close were rebuffed, but bank chiefs confirmed they are constantly reviewing the branch network.
A spokesperson for Barclays said: “Our branch network is constantly reviewed, but there are no current plans to close Barclays in Builth Wells.”
The response came after Builth Wells Town Council took up the matter with Barclays, following rumours creeping in among locals that their branch was set to shut too.
“There has been some concern that Barclays Bank in town is closing,” the town council said in a post on its Facebook page at the beginning of September.
“I am happy to report that this is not the case and it will be remaining open for the foreseeable future. I can report though that Newtown branch is closing permanently from September 23.
“If you are concerned about your branch closing you can do an internet search with Barclays Branch finder and there you will find a list of all the branches that are closing. I hope this is of help.”
Barclays has a team of colleagues in Builth who support customers with their everyday banking needs and on topics such as money management, digital skills and fraud and scam prevention.
In areas when demand for branch usage has fallen, and with more customers choosing to bank digitally, Barclays does still provide face-to-face support in more flexible ways such as through banking pods, a presence in community centres and libraries or with the Barclays van.
This is the case up the road in Llandrindod since the closure in August 2021 of its Middleton Street location; three local post offices now offer banking services in and around the spa town – Station Crescent and Tremont Road in Llandrindod, as well as a mobile post office service available at Howey Village Hall.
The loss of banks throughout Powys has been a constant and sorry sight in the last decade – with studies showing just how stark the issue has become.
Analysis from consumer champion Which? published in May showed a sharp decline in the number of bank branches open in areas across much of the UK compared to seven years ago.
More than half of banks in Montgomeryshire have closed since 2015, while in Brecon and Radnorshire the malaise runs even deeper.
According to figures up to the end of April, nine banks in Montgomeryshire have shut since the start of 2015, leaving eight remaining.
Further south, three in five Brecon and Radnorshire banks have closed over the same period, with 15 having shut their doors, leaving only 10 remaining.
Those figures, however, don’t seem to reflect the recent Barclays closures, as 15 banks in total now remain open in Powys.
Separate figures from LINK, a cash machine network, show there has also been a decline in the number of free-to-use ATMs across the UK in recent years.
Between the start of 2018 and early March this year, the number of free cash points in Montgomeryshire dropped from 39 to 32.
Even more alarmingly, available ATMs in Brecon and Radnorshire dropped from 63 to 38 over the same period.
The increasing use of online banking and contactless payments have led to concerns some will be left behind, or unable to access key services.
List of banks remaining in Powys
- Lloyds Bank – Newtown, Welshpool, Llandrindod, Presteigne, Brecon
- Nationwide – Newtown
- Santander – Newtown, Brecon
- NatWest – Newtown, Brecon
- HSBC – Newtown, Llandrindod, Brecon
- Barclays – Builth, Brecon
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