Shared Bank Hub is the future of banking for East Kilbride town centre says South Lanarkshire Council Leader Joe Fagan

South Lanarkshire Council Leader Joe Fagan believes a shared Bank Hub is the answer to preventing East Kilbride town centre from becoming a “banking desert”.

East Kilbride has suffered the loss of banking services throughout the town centre with local Clydesdale Bank and Barclays branches shutting up shop in the last two years.

And now, with the rise of digital services, RBS East Kilbride and Bank of Scotland in nearby Strathaven are earmarked for closure.

The Royal Bank of Scotland are to shut one in five of its branches – including four in Lanarkshire and Bank of Scotland is to close three of its branches in South Lanarkshire later this year amid declining in-person use by customers.

Its branch at Common Green in Strathaven will go at the start of December, after the ones at Bloomgate in Lanark and Abbeygreen in Lesmahagow shut their doors in August.

Lanarkshire Live told how local pensioner Lorraine Grimes has launched a petition to save the under threat RBS East Kilbride branch insisting the elderly will be hit the hardest.

Describing the closure announcement as “concerning”, East Kilbride Councillor Joe Fagan is backing the Bank Hub Post Office model currently in operation in Cambuslang where face-to-face services are provided by different banks on different days of the week.

With online banking here to stay, he believes this model might help bring banks back into EK town centre.

Cllr Fagan, whose East Kilbride Central North ward includes the town centre, said: “The closure of RBS would come on top of the closure of Clydesdale Bank and Barlcays branches in the town centre and it would further erode access to banking in East Kilbride. I have asked RBS to reconsider their decision but more dramatic action is needed to stop East Kilbride, one of the biggest population centres in all of Scotland, becoming a banking desert.

“The shared banking hub model, operating just down the road in Cambuslang, could be a welcome addition to a renewed town centre. This would see the Post Office and high street banks providing shared space together in the town centre for face-to-face services. If RBS do not stay in their current location, I hope they will at least consider innovative, new ways of preserving services to their customers.”

RBS, owned by NatWest – a third of which is publicly owned – pointed to the rise of digital services, saying 80 per cent of its active current account holders now bank online and more than 97 per cent of its retail accounts are opened over the internet.

The bank is investing around £10.5m in its network across Scotland as well as continuing to invest in “shared solutions” like the Post Office and banking hubs.

Joani Reid, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for East Kilbride and Strathaven, is also backing the Bank Hub model.

She said: “Thriving town centres need banking services for local businesses and customers. The news of this closure will be a blow to loyal RBS customers and local firms and I totally support the residents petitioning for this decision to be reversed.

“Shared banking hubs can help us keep banking services in town centres, even in a world of online banking and changing consumer habits. Not everyone can bank online and not everyone has the confidence to bank online. Those people need banking services too.

“The roll-out of banking hubs across the country has been too slow. A future Labour Government has committed to ramping up the delivery of shared banking hubs right across the UK and now is the time to consider bringing one of those hubs to East Kilbride. Of course, I want RBS to reverse their closure but, as a prospective Member of Parliament for this area, I also want the banks to think about the future and how to protect access to banking in a town the size of East Kilbride.”

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