A BANK has said that it has no plans to close a rural branch which was feared to be under threat.
HSBC has given the assurance about the Leyburn branch after its decision to close in Hawes.
Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond, had written to the bank’s regional director after constituents had expressed concern about the bank’s decision to transfer Hawes accounts to Settle rather than the nearer branch in Wensleydale.
He said: “HSBC have told me there are no plans to close Leyburn, and while that assurance cannot be taken as the guarantee that it will never close, its immediate future is secure.”
Mr Sunak said the bank had told him that moving accounts to Settle was to do with the bank’s internal structures and did not imply Leyburn was under threat.
“Accounts are being transferred to Settle because it is a full service branch with longer opening hours,” he said. “Leyburn is not but that doesn’t mean it is next on the list for closure.”
M Sunak said that having expressed his disappointment about the Hawes closure decision, he had also sought assurances that upper Wensleydale customers would be offered support to switch to telephone/internet banking.
“I am pleased to say the bank has offered that support and taken up my suggestion that one-to-one training is offered and, where appropriate, to do that in customers’ homes.”
He added that he was seeking further assurances that the bank’s business customers in upper Wensleydale would have a full range of facilities under the arrangement HSBC had reached with the post office branch housed in the Hawes Community Office.
Some businesses needed to deposit and withdraw large cash sums and he wanted to be sure that they would be able to do so at the post office without additional costs.
HSBC announced last month that its Hawes branch in the Main Street will close on Friday, October 21, because of changing customer banking practices. More than 80 per cent of its Hawes customers were banking online or by telephone, it said.