Frome traders frustrated as town's last bank announces closure

• ITV News' Robert Murphy spoke to people in Frome about the loss of their last bank.

Frome is preparing to lose its last bank in a few months time.

The town has grown significantly in popularity in recent times, attracting many people to relocate from cities such as London.  

But residents are frustrated at the loss. One said: “What are they going to do with these great big buildings, because no one is going to want them are they?”

However, one admitted: “It’s probably my fault they’ve closed because I’m on internet banking now.”

There are still three building societies, but they don’t offer the same services that banks can. This means businesses are struggling to handle cash.

Tina Gaisford-Waller, the manager of Hunting Raven Books, said: ”I was running around town during Christmas trading hours, running from place to place - begging for £5 worth of pound coins.

“I was getting quite creative, hassling all the market stalls. I don’t want to be going back to the those days, businesses don’t have the time for it.”

One barber has stopped taking cash completely. He says a generation of people will suffer by losing the access to a bank.

Scott Dean said: “We have people that come in that went to the bank to pay their bills and got cash out at the counter, they wouldn’t use the atm because they were scared of it. 

TSB said only 3% of personal customers, and 7% of business customers used this bank.

Campaign group Prosper Frome has seen this coming and wants a new-style replacement to the traditional bank - banking hubs. 

Sam Evans, from the group, said: “It’s a model where the banks rotate in a space around a Post Office. 

“You can go to your bank and get advice on anything you want, but the Post Office does the transactions.”

Despite the loss, the number of cashpoints in the town means the option of a banking hub is unlikely at the moment.

Frome MP Sarah Dyke said: "There's still people that want to use cash, and should be able to use cash - it's a legal tender.

"But also our more elderly population, who want to have that physical face-to-face contact with their banks, they need to have that access.

"At the end of the day businesses are still taking cash and it's not fair on them that they have to travel 10 miles at the end of a working day, to be able to deposit their cash safely."

ITV West Country political correspondent Lucy McDaid said the town will soon by eligible for a deposit service, but finer details are yet to be announced.

She said: "There looks like there could be some light at the end of the tunnel at least in this town."