HSBC to close 3 Somerset branches
HSBC has announced the closure of 3 more branches in Somerset.
The closures, which will be with effect from summer 2023, will be in Frome, Minehead and Wells. In the case of Wells the closure follows hot on the heals of the closure of the city’s Barclays branch.
Bank closures and the impact of them on rural communities are the lead story in the November Leveller in the article “Cashed Out”. Banks are not suffering from a lack of profits. But they are, we argue, suffering from a lack of understanding of their corporate social responsibilities.
If you want to get a flavour of how irrelevant banks like HSBC are to rural Britain, just take a look at their accounts. The pages reproduced below from the 2021 accounts demonstrate the extent to which the bank doesn’t “get” rural issues in Britain.
I am deeply concerned that the Wells and Frome branches are listed for closure.
Shepton Mallet closed about 15 months ago.
We’ve seen far too many local bank branches close over recent years, and this newest closure will leave HSBC customers without a branch in all of Mendip.
We must protect access to local banking facilities and ensure everyone has free access to cash.
As Portfolio Holder for Finance & Enterprise Mendip District Council I will be writing to the banks Community Liaison Officers as there must be proper banking provision for local people.
Please be assured your Council is here for you and will do all account with limited power. It has. I also urged customers to vote for their feet, but I am worried about vulnerable people.
This really isn’t good enough
Barry O’Leary
“A PSALM OF LIFE”!*
Can this ‘octogenarian’ attempt to respond to the ‘echo’ of Councillor, Barry O’Leary, Portfolio Holder of Finance & Enterprise, Mendip District Council; in my day Administration & Finance Committee. Those inaugural years of MDC, pace 1974 LG Reorganisation, were served by ‘apolitical-dedicated’ community individuals, not behoved to party ‘dogma’. No ‘leader’ suffice, Chairman, Policy & Resource Committee, therein ‘delineated’ an ‘escutcheon’ to those individuals, in the Council Chamber; no mean reflection of ‘footprints in the sands of time’.*
Councillor O’Leary’s lament, begs, whither the ‘multiplicity’ of Standing/Sub-committees/Working Parties ‘integral’ to the established best practices, in the management of the local authority; patently ‘abdicated’ witness in the ‘misfeasance in public office’ of the adjoining local authority of SSDC.
I look forward to the ‘belated’ consultative process, now to begin, subsequent to the ‘horse’ having bolted; similarly Somerset Bus Services, per se?
Of course, an ‘historical’ irony: Stuckey’s Bank was established in Langport in the 18th century and grew to be one of the biggest and most trusted country banking groups, whose banknotes were said to have a circulation second only to that of the Bank of England. Somerset folk who were offered Bank of England notes would often reject them, saying “Gie I a Stuckey! (HSBC)
We’re promised a comprehensive ‘erudition’ in the December, LEVELLER publication ‘truth to power’. SOMERSET’S largest circulation NEWSPAPER in a DECENNIAL!
*Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;