FURIOUS campaigners say a popular bank is discriminating against its younger and elderly customers by closing its doors for good next month.

NatWest announced in May it planned to shut its Sonning Common branch on Friday, August 29 – prompting Cllr Dirk Jones to lead a public meeting outside the Peppard Road bank on Monday.

Cllr Jones believes the bank desperately needs it to remain open as many of its residents will not be able to use online or telephone services.

He told The Chronicle: “The elderly and the young are being discriminated against. They are customers that are being told 'We don’t want you’.

“They are, unfortunately, not IT literate. A lot of us don’t trust the security that goes with online banking.

“I know that if I see a person in a bank to transfer money, I know who messed it up if something goes wrong.

“If you want to come in and move some money on a Monday morning you can’t now.”

During the meeting, campaigners spoke to NatWest area chief executive Gavin Owens about their concerns and suggestions, which include moving the branch to a smaller premises in Wood Lane.

RBS, which owns NatWest, is closing the branch due to low footfall because just 29 customers use it per week.

The nearby post office will handle face-to-face transactions such as paying in cheques, and the cash machine will not be removed.

RBS spokeswoman Sarah Binnie said: “The post office does a number of banking services for a number of banks already.

“Our stats show that 80% of customers are in a three-mile radius of a branch, and when you include the post office network, that rises to 90%.

“The transactions they will manage on our behalf are exact replicas of the services they already currently provide for other banks – so there won’t be any difference.”