Looe mayor's plea to help ease bank closure pain

Lloyds in Helston is to close along with the Looe branch in January

A Cornwall town's mayor has called on Lloyds Bank to help ease the pain of closing its branch.

Lloyds is planning to close branches at Looe and Helston in January, leaving them with no banks.

The bank blamed a lack of customers as people moved to online banking.

Looe mayor Edwina Hannaford said: "All I am saying to Lloyds is please talk to the community and we can help them mitigate some of the impact the closure will bring."

'Fewer customers'

Ms Hannaford told BBC Radio Cornwall that she had been "in conversation" with Lloyds about options including extra ATMs and a banking hub, but there were a "lot of questions".

Shared bank hubs, run by the Post Office, have staff from each of the major High Street banks visiting once a week.

Ms Hannaford said: "The Post Office is brilliant but there are queues around the shop and I don't know if they have the capcity to deal with what Lloyds used to do.

"I think we can work around it but they need to work with the community.

"We want to make sure residents and visitors have access to cash if they want it 24-7."

One local man, aged 89, said people would have to go to Falmouth, Penzance or Camborne after the Helston branch closed.

"Many older people don't do online banking," he said.

A Lloyds Bank spokesperson said branches were an "important way for customers to do their everyday banking but, like many other businesses on the high street, fewer customers are visiting their local branch and are instead choosing to bank mainly online or on their phones.

"With millions of customers now regularly banking online, we have to respond to these changes.”