Bank assurances about not closing branches are short-lived complains one customer.

Teddy Cranmer moved his account from HSBC to NatWest following the closure of HSBC’s Dartmouth branch in May 2016. The assurance he received prior to moving his account was that the NatWest branch was not going to close. Following the announcement that the NatWest branch and its associated cash machine will close on Monday, June 11, Mr Cranmer has written to both Ross McEwan the head of NatWest and to Tony Smith at the executive office in Edinburgh to complain and to suggest that, at least the cash machine should remain open.

A notice giving Mr Smith’s address at NatWest was posted to the cash machine but has since been removed.

Mr Cranmer said: “Not enough people are complaining about the closure. A number of us moved our accounts to NatWest and we were assured that the Dartmouth branch would not close. We shouldn’t just accept it.

Mr Cranmer wrote last week to Mr Tony Smith suggesting that NatWest retains their ATM and night safe in Dartmouth and that they can be serviced out of Paignton. He cited the statement of Caroline Abrahams, a director of Age UK, who said at the time of the closure of Lloyds’ Dartmouth branch; “The increasing reliance on online banking is difficult for many, particularly the high numbers who don’t have smartphones or internet access.

“There is still a sizeable proportion of our population, on our assessment about 4 million people, who are not on-line at all, let alone able to do internet banking. And that figure is not changing fast enough to justify the withdrawal of branch-based services.”

Mr Cranmer wishes encourage all customers of the Dartmouth NatWest branch to complain. He says the post office simply will not be able to cope and that the loss of 24-hr access to cash is not acceptable.