West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has written to the chief executive of Barclays Bank urging him to re-think plans to close the busy Malvern branch.
The MP said that she was disappointed that the bank had decided to close the Worcester Road branch less than two years after managers claimed they were committed to the bank’s long-term future in the town centre.
Harriett visited the busy high street branch in 2019 when she was briefed on plans to improve local banking services and invest in new technology to speed up services.
Harriett meets the local Barclays business manager in 2019
But the bank has now decided to shut the branch down in August forcing customers to make significant extra journeys to Ledbury or Worcester to carry out face-to-face banking.
Harriett said: “I’m a regular user of the Malvern Barclays Bank and I know from first-hand how busy it can be, so I challenge the bank’s report which claims it isn’t used much.
“I can understand that banks have seen much less footfall in the last year, but I simply don’t believe that this particular branch is in decline. The staff told me as much when I met with them in 2019.
“The banks seem to be taking steps to use coronavirus as cover to make difficult business decisions but in this case, I have written to the bank’s chief executive and asked him to look again at the statistics underlying this decision.”