Rethink plan for closure

Last week The Clydesdale Bank announced plans to close its facility in Bo’ness Road, Grangemouth later this year.

It is part of a proposal by The Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank group to close 79 branches with the loss of around 400 jobs.

The Grangemouth branch is to close on April 27. Banking bosses said the nearest branch will then be in Falkirk, almost three miles away.

In a statement from the Clydesdale Bank the shift in people using electronic banking was given for the review of its operation.

It said since 2011 visits to UK banks had decreased by a third.

This week, Angus MacDonald MSP and MP Martyn Day, who both represent Grangemouth, urged banking chiefs to have a rethink.

Mr MacDonald said: “Banks play an important role in our town centres for both local people who may not have the luxury of broadband for internet banking, or indeed the desire to use it, and for local businesses making transactions in cash and require somewhere secure to deposit it.

“Directors of local businesses have already contacted me to highlight the inconvenience this closure will cause if it is to go ahead.”

Mr Day said: “Whilst the way we bank is changing, a bank is still a major economic asset to a town centre.

This decision appears to be nothing more than a cost-cutting measure at the expense of local customers.”