ALMOST 300 people have signed a petition to save the Caversham branch of Nationwide from closure.
The bank announced last week that the Church Street branch would be closing its doors in April, but locals claim the bank is an important feature of the high street, and has only seen a drop in customers due to Covid-19.
A Change.org page explains: "This [the bank] is the last place in our village to do any money transactions, all the other banks and building societies have closed down.
"They say there are not enough customers, but this has been measured during the past year during Covid-19 and three lockdowns.
Nationwide, Caversham
"Normally it is busy and I should know, I have been using it for 26 years.
"They will say we can go into Reading, this involves a bus ride or if you go by car you have to pay Reading's parking fees.
"There are many elderly people living here who use it and who prefer to go into a branch and will not be happy about switching to online banking or telephone banking."
The petition also says that the staff at the branch are well known and part of the community.
Nationwide Building Society explained on its website that the Caversham bank would close on Thursday, April 22, adding that the nearest branch in in Broad Street, Reading town centre.
Church Road, Caversham
One customer who signed the petition said: "As a Nationwide customer for over 40 years I feel very let down by Nationwide in taking this action.
"We were asked by Nationwide to only access the branch or phone during the pandemic if strictly necessary.
"We’ve done as asked and now being penalised for doing as requested.
"When we haven’t been in lockdown the queues have been long so it’s clear Nationwide are using the situation to bring this closure about."
However, the bank have stated that there had been a drop in usage of the bank prior to the pandemic.
Announcing the closure of the Caversham site, the Nationwide website said: "There are lots of things we have to consider when we’re looking at closing a branch.
"And it’s never a decision that’s taken lightly.
"Firstly, we look at how it’s being used, how many members have visited over 12 months, what kind of transactions have been made and what other ways those branch members have been choosing to bank with us; online, on the phone or in one of our other branches.
"Even before the coronavirus changed so much of our day-to-day lives, this branch was not being used by enough members to make it viable.
"Secondly, with older branches like Caversham, we have to think about how much money we’d need to spend on the branch to bring it up to date for our members and our colleagues.
"Where costs are high, we choose not to spend our members’ money if there’s a better alternative."
PICTURED: Customers claim the drop in use of the bank was due to the pandemic
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The bank said it is working with the community to understand the impact of closing the branch.
It said it is speaking to community representatives in the local council including local MPs.
At the time of writing, the petition, which can be viewed here, had 293 signatures.
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