LETTER: Decision doesn't consider long term

Locals gather to show their disapproval of Lloyds Bank's decision to close it's Clay Cross branch on High Street.

The bank provides vital services to both Clay Cross residents and businesses, many of whom would struggle, either economically or logistically, to travel to either Chesterfield or Alfreton.

I appreciate that the bank may not consider itself to be a community service. However, the decision makers appear not have factored in that two major developments are being built in the immediate vicinity — on both the old Biwater site and the Avenue coking plant — potentially affording them thousands of new personal and business customers.

The Liberal Democrats have written to the bank’s head of retail operations outlining our thoughts as to why the Clay Cross branch provides a vital service to Clay Cross and its surrounding communities and the potential longer-term viability that maintaining the Clay Cross branch could have for the bank itself.

I hope that the bank re-evaluates its decision and comes to the conclusion that the branch can remain open.

Coun David Hancock

Tupton Ward

North East Derbyshire and Bolsover district Liberal Democrats