"Banks pressed the self destruct button years ago:" Pontefract people react to announcement Lloyds Bank branch in town is set to close

Finance giant Lloyds Banking Group, which owns both high street banks, is to axe 18 Halifax branches and 22 Lloyds branches throughout England and Wales, over a three-month period beginning in April, blaming declining customer numbers for the decision.

The Pontefract branch of Lloyds Bank on Ropergate, will close on April 20, but the move has led to an angry response in the town with many claiming the closure is due to the company favouring technology over local livelihoods.

Featherstone district councillor Stephen Vickers said: “Banks pressed the self destruct button years ago. Every time I visited the branch I was asked ‘have you considered internet banking.’ My answer ‘yes I considered it but it would cost you your job the same as self serve checkouts in supermarkets, no thanks.’

"Sadly now I will have to travel to Castleford from Featherstone.”

Nikkie Sykes works at Freedom Home Care, who banks with the branch. She said: “We bank there for the care home and it is the only local bank for us, and would be a nightmare if it closed. So much of our time will be wasted if we had to travel to Wakefield or Selby.”

Others, however, say the closure was inevitable as society embraces the digital age.

Pontefract-born Ian Brown opposes the ideology that the bank needs to keep the branch for the ‘older generation,’ he said: “I’m a person in my late 70s I can use the internet and don’t need a bank branch.

"It’s a business decision to close bank branches as the bank is not a obliged to provide a high street service. They are businesses not a public service and don’t have to justify the existence of the branch. Pontefract still has bank branches and building societies to deposit and withdraw cash offer loans and mortgages.”

Lloyd Banking Group says the number of visits at the 40 affected branches has dropped by about 60 per cent on average in the last five years.

The company insisted there would be no job losses as the staff are being offered roles in other branches or in another part of the business.

The bank has also stated that at least one ATM and Post Office will be within a third of a mile of a closed branch.

The announcement adds to 64 closures that have been announced since the start of the year, with Barclays and TSB saying they will shut 24 sites between them.