Fury as RBS rubber stamps Inveraray closure

Argyll and Bute MP Brendan O'Hara reacted with anger as the Royal Bank of Scotland announced the final closure of its Inveraray branch.

 

The decision - following an 'stay of execution' pending an independent appraisal - leaves the Argyll tourist hotspot with no bank in town.

 

As RBS published the results of its review into ten Scottish branches it was revealed that eight out of the ten ‘last-bank-in-town’ branches will close.

 

The authors of the report, Johnston Carmichael, have qualified their report as 'a thorough appraisal of alternative banking services available to each community in order to properly understand the likely impact to customers should a branch close'.

 

Argyll and Bute MP Brendan O’Hara said: 'This report smacks of post-decision justification. Zero account has been taken into the impact on Inveraray when the last bank in town closes.  To say I'm furious is an understatement.

 

"attachment_73372" "" "300"] Argyll and Bute MP Brendan O'Hara.

 

'I have spoken to scores of folk around Inveraray who all depend on the RBS branch. I have delivered petitions to parliament opposing these closures reaching literally thousands of signatures. I am astonished that Johnston Carmichael say they understand the impact of the closure of these branches. I didn’t speak to a single person who was happy about this.

 

'RBS has failed to consider their social responsibilities to rural and urban communities and to the long-lasting damage these closures will cause across Scotland and particularly in Argyll and Bute.

 

'Only last week RBS sent a leaflet to stakeholders titled “Supporting your constituency”. In that glossy little booklet, RBS refer to their 29,400 customers in Argyll and Bute. The electorate in Argyll and Bute stands at 67,230. So, by RBS own admission, almost half of the electorate in the whole of Argyll and Bute banks with RBS. Closing three of the eight branches throughout the constituency sends a seriously negative message to those of us who bank with them.

 

'RBS isn't just another bank, almost three-quarters of it is owned by the tax-payer; folk like you and me who bailed them out at the last financial crash.

 

'RBS and the Tory Westminster Government have ignored rural communities and the Tories have failed to intervene when they knew very well it was within their power to do so.'

 

Under the Johnston Carmichael recommendations, Castlebay in Barra and Biggar in South Lanarkshire will remain open, but branches in Inveraray, Kyle, Comrie, Beauly, Douglas, Gretna, Tongue and Melrose are to be shut on or around January 11, 2019.

 

The Unite trade union's regional officer Lyn Turner said: 'The Johnston Carmichael review was entirely predictable and nothing but a rubber-stamp of RBS management decisions. Sixty communities out of an original sixty-two earmarked for closure will now be marginalised by this so-called review.

 

'Unite will now request to meet RBS urgently to discuss the impact from today’s announcement on our members.'