Latest news with #CashAccess
BBC News
30-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Plans for banking hub to open in Crowthorne church building
Plans to open a banking hub in a church building have been Cash Access UK has applied to temporarily convert an "underused office" to the east of Crowthorne Baptist Church on High Street in Crowthorne, Berkshire, into the hub for up to three hubs provide cash and basic banking services from a number of banking brands, with staff available to help customers in Forest Council has validated the application and a decision is yet to be made. The banking hubs have become essential for areas where bank branches have closed than 150 have now been opened across the a cover letter, agents Ridge and Partners LLP called the Baptist church "an important place of worship and a community facility"."For this application, Cash Access is seeking to convert a small portion of the building, currently an underused office, into a temporary cash hub located to the east of the building, away from the church itself and the community hall."This is to ensure that there is a local bank operating within the high street for all community residents, whilst Cash Access look for a more permanent building." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
BBC News
28-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Whitchurch businesses welcome Shropshire's first banking hub
Businesses have praised a banking hub, describing the service as "excellent" after the last bank in town said it would close its doors. The new hub in Whitchurch, the first of its kind in Shropshire, allows customers to take out cash, make deposits and check balances without having to travel to other was set up by CashAccess, a non-profit organisation owned and run by major banks, aiming to make sure people can still get cash when they need it. The last regular bank standing in Whitchurch - TSB - announced it would shut in May. Kenny Bould who works at Timpsons, over the road from the hub's base, said: "I use it to put money in, and also we need change, and every time I've been in there's no queue - [I go] in and out, it's brilliant." Mr Bould said the provision would "help me loads" and was a "brilliant idea". So far, the hub has representatives from TSB, Halifax, Barclays, and NatWest coming in one day per week. It offers private spaces to talk through financial concerns with announced last year it would be closing its Whitchurch branch, saying it was because the majority of their customers were using digital rather than face-to-face to figures from TSB, 96% of transactions take place outside of branches, with those carried out in-branch falling by 43% since 2020. Some locals are worried that losing the town's last bank could lead to a drop in footfall on the high street, but hope the hub can make a difference."A lot of people won't come to the town any longer to do their banking, and so won't look round the shops" said Sharron Marriott, who runs Make Your House A said she hoped the hub would change that. Florist Jenny McHale from Gallery Flowers said the banking hub was "removing the pressure" from the local Post Office, where locals had previously been taking out cash. "When you're in the Post Office you're in a queue for 25, 30 minutes, maybe longer," she McHale added that aside from the new hub, her closest bank branch was a 45-minute drive away in Chester. For businesses that rely on cash, having somewhere to deposit - and withdraw - money is Bailey from Antiques Emporium says the business can miss out from a lack of banking provision, as it doesn't accept card payments at all. "We find that [customers] can't walk anywhere to get [cash] - they say 'we'll come back' and then they don't come back," she said. The importance of cash was echoed by Mark Fulton, who runs record store The Vinyl Countdown."As a business owner it's obviously essential that we have somewhere we can pay cash in and take cash out," he that while "the ideal scenario" would be having full-time bank branches back in the town, he said, the shared hub was "a good second choice". Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
