Island Echo always welcome letters to the editor, which may of course not reflect the views of the publication and its staff.
Letter to the editor – 13th June 2023
“There are some concerns relating to access for individuals and businesses in Ryde appropriate to the closures of Building Societies and Banks.
“When I opened up my business in 1988, there were ten building societies and five banks. By August 2023, there will be only one bank and two building societies and from this week, one of these building societies will go down to a three-day week. This means that there will only be one building society in Ryde that will be open five days per week full-time and half day on Saturdays.
Article continues below this advertisement “This is a concern as the Isle of Wight has a higher proportion of small businesses than a lot of the areas in the South East. Ryde is also the largest town for residential (chimneys) so therefore, there is more demand in Ryde rather than the capital town of Newport.
“The concern is why are they doing a lot of these closures? Unfortunately, these are due to head office decisions without carefully looking at the individual locations and their individual buildings in the particular towns. Most of the closures are due to the fact that they have retained the same building since first opening and therefore, some of the big banks would have up to between thirty and forty members of staff. This has now diminished due to technology whereas, surely if they just downsized and released funds from their property, this would reduce their overall cost. More importantly, this would ensure continued access for individuals and businesses servicing their accounts.
“I confirm that the Isle of Wight Council continue to make us aware of scams. We are therefore seeing many scams within the banking sector for which is a continued concern. So people feel more comfortable dealing at a branch.
“Also, we find that on the Island there are many small businesses who are working full time and therefore, appropriate to this, it is essential that they have access to their business accounts locally. With the closures in Ryde, travelling to and from Newport, difficulty of parking, this will take a considerable amount of time out of their business week and therefore, this will not be cost effective. Someone has to pay for this accordingly.
“The actual banks or building societies themselves highlight to people to utilise post offices. Unfortunately, we have seen the demise of these within the United Kingdom, confirming that there are very few Crown Post Offices (traditionally run by Royal Mail). The majority now are sub-post offices and therefore, will need to be able to cope with the volume of business appropriate to the many closures. Also, due to the IT disaster caused by Horizon, many sub-post offices have closed and Post Offices Counters Limited are finding it difficult to obtain new locations to be run under their franchise format.
Article continues below this advertisement “We now see on the mainland that banking hubs are being set up and therefore, as we will be down to only one bank, careful consideration ought to be given to review this possibility for the town of Ryde. Many businesses in Ryde need a cash facility i.e. changing coins to notes and vice versa and hence, some companies like ourselves are having to consider changing banks or, look at bringing in security which is therefore more cost, as this facility comes from the mainland, to the businesses at a continuing difficult time after Covid-19 and the recession. This will therefore put further strain on local Island businesses”.
Perhaps the banks should share one building and share cut costs now HSBC closes in Union Street Ryde previously Midland opened in 1898 first Customer was Miss P Hogg my great great aunt I joined in 1976 in Bembridge Midland branch changes with online banking has killed the branches but that’s what the banks wanted, Supermarkets next because self service will replace the till staff
If smart ar*es did not keep paying by phone this would not be the case.
When we lose cash, people will be crying.
There will be no way of making a few extra quid without the Taxman knowing.
Many builders will go bust.
Hilarious that you are sanctioning tax evasion, something that costs the country £billions and which we all pay for in the end, as a valid reason for keeping cash. If anything it’s a good reason to get rid of it.
You wont say that if you need any building work carried out
Cash is King.
I agree it’s a pain that many banks choose Newport over Ryde. Surely they go where demand is highest, although decisions may not be that logical. It is the Isle of Wight after all.
However, Ryde has two decent post offices in the town centre. Newport has none in its centre (Island logic strikes again). As a personal customer I’d much rather have the post offices which I use regularly.
If there is only one bank in Ryde – I have no idea if that’s true or not – ask yourself, is it rammed full of customers? Are they queuing out the door?
I think not. I’m sure we would all have been aware of queues stretching down the street.
So, why are the banks not busy? The answer to that is easy, I would have thought. People don’t use them, people don’t need them as much as they used to.
If you really are in business as you claim, you must surely be aware that the use of cash is dwindling. Whether people like it or not, that’s a fact. And, hence, less cash being used means that physical banks aren’t needed as they used to be.
Sorry, but no business is going to keep premises open if less and less people are using them.
With the closure of the banks comes the problems that shop owners, publicans, restaraunt owners etc have depositing cash and also obtaining change for their tills etc, forcing more places to go totally cashless.
Sadly the thin end of a very big unwelcomed by many wedge!
It is a cynical move to drive everyone to use electronic means of banking to pave the way for digital currency and the outlawing of cash – they want a cashless society as part of the planned WEF great reset where banks, governments, bureaucracies and corporations will have total control over what you have and how you spend it, refusing transactions if you exceed your soon to be deployed ‘carbon credit’ or simply because you dare go against whatever wonderful new controls they establish (think what they did to Canadian truckers and anyone who supported them) – it’s not about profit as much as total control over your lives
Various surveys indicate those over 65 are withdrawing from the world of technology. Government and banks need to address this urgently.