BARCLAYS ANNOUNCE CLOSURE OF ALDERLEY EDGE BRANCH

Today, I have received the following correspondence from the Director of Customer Care at Barclays, which I am publishing as an open letter as I'm aware that there has been a lot a speculation about this locally for some time. The decision is disappointing, as Barclays was the last remaining branch in Alderley Edge and (in addition to Post Office Counter Services) this leaves the village with just one remaining ATM facility, at TESCO.

Over the last few years, we have seen the closure of face-to-face facilities firstly at HSBC (at the Parade), then Natwest and most recently, RBS. Whilst the change to online banking by many customers is undeniable (probably further accelerated by the pandemic), these decisions fail to take account of the fact that there are still a number of people locally, especially elderly people, who are not online and who are unfamiliar with online banking.

It is a shame that the banks are unable to share resources and provide a single "banking hub" in Alderley Edge that would be accessible by all customers, but when I asked about this as a possibility following the closure of RBS, I was told that each bank has its own secure system which is incapable of being accessed or being made available for access by other providers.

"Dear Councillor, I would like to give you notice of a change Barclays is making in your area. On Wednesday 5^th October, we are closing our Alderley Edge branch.

The decision to close a branch is never an easy one, however, the way people bank today is unrecognisable from 50 years ago when almost every banking transaction took place in a branch. Now, that number is less than 10%, and we need to make sure that we are providing our services in ways that best reflect customers’ needs, including outside of traditional branch formats.

This ongoing change in behaviour means we are seeing a sustained fall in customer transactions across our network and this is reflected at the Alderley Edge branch where there has been a 30% reduction in counter transactions in the last twelve months, compared to the twelve months to March 2020. In addition, we can identify that 90% of our customers at the branch are using alternative ways in which to undertake their banking, including via the telephone, online and mobile app.

Despite the branch closure, we are confident that access to banking remains sufficient in the local community; everyday transactions can be completed at any Post Office, with the closest located at 12 West Street, Alderley Edge SK9 7EG (75 yards away). There is 1 free-to-use ATM within one mile, which is Tesco at 17-23 London Road, Alderley Edge SK9 7JT (100 yards away); while the closest Barclays branches are in Wilmslow (59 Grove Street, Wilmslow SK9 1ER) and Macclesfield (10 Market Place, Macclesfield SK10 1HA).

Although the branch is closing, we will still have an active presence in the community via new and alternative physical touchpoints. We plan to provide additional face-to-face access for banking services via one of our community locations – from the point of closure. Further details, including the timings and the location, will be communicated to our regular customers in the coming days. 

We appreciate that not all of our customers will adopt change at the same pace, and we would like to underline our commitment to supporting our vulnerable customers through this change. We have also identified that in total, just 9 regular customers use this branch exclusively for their banking and do not interact with us in other ways.  We will be making personal contact with all regular branch users to discuss their options and guide them through alternative ways to bank.

As part of this closure announcement we will follow the Access to Banking Standard. This means all of our local customers will be informed of our decision at least 12 weeks before the closure via letter. We will also make available our Reasons for Closure document.

We appreciate you may receive queries from your constituents on this matter, and want to make sure you are prepared with the relevant information in this event. Despite the closure of the branch, I hope you can agree that we remain committed to meeting customer needs in Alderley Edge.