On The Town Of Porthcawl Being Short Changed By Banks. An Update

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

The story so far.

Porthcawl is a town that had to my understanding four banks. Then last year the Natwest branch closed down and then there were three. Earlier this year Barclays announces that their branch in the town will close down in May.

Now the key difference between Porthcawl and many other towns where similar actions have been taken is that being a seaside town they will face an increase in people visiting during the summer months. A lot of cash is used for things like the arcades or ice cream or novelty gifts. Also if a cash machine will only give you a £10 note as it's lowest change there is a greater likelihood of people going into the small businesses such as gift shops and the like, buy the smallest item available just to get the change.

The nearest available bank would in Bridgend. So the process to get a large portion of change would be to order it, drive to Bridgend. Collect it and drive back. That would take roughly an hour. Inconvenient and let's face it dangerous (do you want to be responsible for attacks on the people carrying this money Barclays? Now do you?).

In my previous post on the subject I had suggested that whilst there should be a campaign to keep the branch open for the many small businesses in the town that are affected by this in the short term Barclays should agree to postpone the closure until the autumn to allow these companies to properly plan for the future. To close down in May really gives them little notice and really is a malevolent action by the bank given the holiday season will come shortly after (and before you say "Why don't they just change banks?" some might have for example loans with Barclays).

Now read on.

What I discovered yesterday was that of the two remaining banks in the town one of them, the Halifax, does not operate a counter service.

That means on the specific issue of providing small change Porthcawl has only one bank left.

Which means that the situation is worse than I had previously assumed (and I didn't think it great then!)

And you can tell how much success the council and the local AM Carwyn Jones have had with the banks.

Barclays needs to at the very least postpone their decision until the autumn before a proper campaign to save it can be organised. It makes sense and is morally right. I hold no power or influence but out of curiosity I'm going to tweet them to see what response they give. They're putting businesses and potentially people's safety on the line here.

Until the next time