Loss of Lloyds leaves 'one cash machine' in Thatcham town centre
Thatcham councillors have expressed their “disappointment” with the closure of the town’s last bank next month.
Lloyds Bank in the town centre will officially close on August 24 following a company announcement in May of this year.
“With the closure of the branch in the Kingsland Centre, we will lose all but one of our central Thatcham cashpoints,” the chairman of the town centre committee councillor Owen Jeffery (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central) told a full chamber of Thatcham town councillors on Monday, June 27.
He said: “There will only be one cash machine left in the centre of Thatcham, that’s the one which is on the pavement outside the Co-op.”
The councillor – who opened his account when he married and moved to Thatcham in August of 1979 – went on to tell the chamber that anyone who now wishes to withdraw a significant sum of money will have to do it “standing outside the Co-op” rather than in the “enclosed space” of a bank.
Members of the council thanked the local Lloyds staff for their service and informed the chamber that the post office is still there to provide certain services that will be otherwise lost.
Read more: Lloyds Bank putting ‘profits before customers’ say Lib Dems
Deputy Mayor Mark Lillycrop (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) echoed the disappointment expressed by his Liberal Democrat colleague and said: “There are many people in Thatcham who will struggle with any kind of online banking.
“Having said that we should give some credit to Lloyds for being the last bank to desert the town.”
He called the gradual shift to digital services “a vicious circle” noting that the popularity of online banking has been driving people away from physical branches, which makes them uneconomical to function.
Despite this, he said that the council expected more from Lloyds in terms of “communication and general reassurance.”
In absence of the branch, the mayor of Thatcham, Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) suggested the council asks Lloyds to provide an ATM in its place.
