Council urged to change bank after branch closure announcement

Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter

A call for a council to change its banking arrangement with Barclays, after the bank announced it was closing its branch in the county town, is to be heard later this week.

Barclays Bank in Haverfordwest, located on the town’s High Street, is to close on May 10 this year.

Councillor Huw Murphy, in his notice of motion to the full council meeting of March 7, says: “Barclays Bank recently announced that they are closing their last remaining branch in Pembrokeshire in 2024 (Haverfordwest) in what they claim is an effort at ‘rightsizing’ their headcount.”

Review

“Therefore, this Notice of Motion is a request that Pembrokeshire County Council review its banking arrangements with Barclays and look towards a new banking arrangement with a bank that still retains a physical footprint and therefore a commitment to the county of Pembrokeshire.

“The loss of many banking facilities within Pembrokeshire over recent years has had a detrimental impact on many town centres such as Tenby, St Davids, Fishguard, Milford Haven, Narberth, Newport and Pembroke and Pembroke Dock and will soon impact Haverfordwest with the loss of Barclays bank to the town.”

Impact

“The loss of these banks not only impacts upon town centres and businesses but also disproportionately impacts the elderly who are less likely to embrace on-line banking options and also results in the loss of well-paid and secure employment in a county that can ill afford to lose such jobs and career opportunities for our young who may wish to enter a career in the banking/finance industry without having to re-locate out of Pembrokeshire.”

After the closure was announced, a spokesperson for the bank said that the Haverfordwest branch only had 32 regular customers who used the branch exclusively for their banking and do not interact with Barclay’s in any other way.

They added that less than 10 per cent of transactions now take place inside a branch. More than 90 percent of transactions are completed digitally, there are nearly four billion app logins a year and Barclays digital customers now stand at 10.9 million.