The top boss of RBS needs to be “taken by the scruff of the neck” over a raft of closures which have “totally failed” Angus, it has been claimed.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the doors shutting on the Montrose branch – left off a reprieve list announced this week – Angus councillors are to make a plea to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in protest over what they said was another hammer-blow to the area.
A full council meeting in Forfar agreed the move after a motion was put forward by Montrose SNP councillor Bill Duff condemning the potential impact on the community of the planned closure of the High Street counter, which was on a 62-branch RBS hit list announced late last year.
Mr Duff said axeing the branch would leave some RBS customers with an Aberdeen to Arbroath-sized gap in provision on the east coast and some folk in the Mearns with a 50-mile round trip to get to their nearest branch.
“The UK Government holds over 70% of the shares in RBS and kept the bank afloat after the financial crash of 2008,” said Mr Duff.
“Closing rural branches in Scotland is a sore dividend for loyal customers of RBS.
“The provision of mobile vans provides an inadequate response in terms of a full range of services, confidentiality and access for disabled customers.”
He said the announcement ten closure-threatened branches would be kept open until at least the end of the year had not been based on fair comparison.
“If they can retain or reprieve a branch in Comrie, with a population of 2,000, it’s hard to see why they can’t save a branch in Montrose – population 14,000.”
Arbroath SNP colleague Alex King said: “While you can do an awful lot by internet banking or plastic that does not help the shopkeeper or the treasurer of the local groups and organisations who have to take cash to the bank from performances or events.
“How are these customers going to get their cash into the RBS if there is not a branch in the area? There is still a cash society out there, and there will be for many years to come.
“I think RBS has got this totally wrong, they are there to bring a service to the public as well as being a commercial organisation.
“I think it’s time the government got a grip on this and said there has to be a branch in towns of a certain population – I would say 10,000 – and if you’re in the rural area there has to be a branch within a certain distance.
“RBS has totally failed on this.
“They have not considered what the public need, only their own profitability, and I think it is time to take the CEO by the scruff of the neck and shake some sense into him.”
The bank said its decision to keep the 10 branches open for the next 11 months showed it had listened to customers, local communities and political figures.
