'Bank closure means I have to move my business'

Traders in a Staffordshire town have said the closure of the last bank there is “killing” the high street.

Barclays in Kidsgrove shut its doors for the final time in August 2023, highlighting that less than 10% of transactions took place inside its physical branches.

One business owner says his trade has since fallen by almost half due to a drop in footfall he links to people not being able to do their banking. Another has decided to close her shop altogether.

As the Christmas trading season gets into gear, businesses that remain are hoping for some financial festive cheer.

Kelly Bochenski, who took the decision to move her hair salon elsewhere after trading in the town for six years, said: “It wasn't viable to continue to run the business.

“A lot of my mature clients, elderly clients, did have comments on the bank shutting and footfall has reduced somewhat.”

Baz Johnson took over his shop nine years ago and said the bank’s closure had had a huge impact.

“You used to get people from Macclesfield, Alsager, Congleton, everybody using the bank - and now nobody comes because they used to go to the bank, [then] come in here for cards, so it's just killed it,” he said.

Barclays said it only had 67 regular customers using the bank, and that it had since introduced a community banking hub at the local sports centre.

Butcher Steven King disagreed with the bank’s figures, and said he would often see long queues in the bank from his shop next door.

“It was so busy, every single day from Monday to Friday,” he said. “There were queues after queues.”

He added: “All the pensioners used to use it and I feel so sorry for those because they rely on it. Now it's just left us all in the lurch and really made us suffer.”

A spokesperson for Barclays said customers’ behaviour had changed significantly in recent years, with the majority now choosing online banking.

“This was reflected at our Kidsgrove branch,” they said, adding: “We now operate a Barclays Local at the sports centre – a pop-up cashless banking site where customers can meet a colleague face-to-face for banking support, as they would in a branch and without the need to travel.”

Businesses, meanwhile, are urging people to shop locally, to help their high street survive.

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