Councillor at war with bank

James Anderson had invited the bank to send a representative to engage with the public about their concerns.

Tracey Greenhough, complaint manager at Lloyds Banking Group, declined in a letter, saying: “As you are aware, we have announced our intention to close Eyemouth branch on October 9, 2023, and we do appreciate the disappointment the announcement will have caused you and some members of the community.

We are grateful for the invitation to take part in a public meeting, but I hope you will forgive us if we decline. Our preferred approach is to focus on our customers and staff, with whom we are directly engaged. Our local colleagues – both branch and local director teams – have been making every effort to speak directly to our customers to address their concerns, explain the options available to them and compile this feedback, and that continues to be our priority.

Mr Anderson has written back, saying: “You will forgive me if i do not forgive the lack of community engagement, and your refusal to engage with the community you serve directly. Your customers are the ones asking for the public meeting. Your customers are the ones feeling let down.

“Your employees are pushing your customers to the post office at the spar in Eyemouth … (which) has little capacity to take on the needs of the bank’s customers. The majority of people who use face to face banking are the elderly and disabled. The exact demographic who will struggle to get to the top of Eyemouth to do their banking.”

He added: “I think it is very clear to see the Bank of Scotland has broken the promise they made to Eyemouth when RBS closed. Residents were reassured they would not be left high and dry by your bank. This saw customers transfer to your bank, it would now just seem to have been a tactic to take business from RBS.

I am very dissatisfied that your bank won't even give elected officials the proper time to talk over the consequential effects of your decisions and how you can mitigate those negative impacts.

Who is the manager in charge of this closure? The way this has been done is totally unacceptable and as the elected member for Eyemouth i simply refuse to be fobbed off.