Peter Owen, a former academic who lives in the town, says: “You see people going in all the time. I’ve been a customer of this bank for nearly 50 years, in its various forms. But basically the bank is saying that people like me, and the older people in there, are non-profitable customers, so b—-r you. It’s as simple as that.”
Mike Pindar, 75, a former interior decorator and architect, says he has been a NatWest customer at the branch for decades.
He says: “The thing is, this bank has been so busy. Busier than most banks, because it is the last one left in the town and it’s the last one left in a big area.
“Everybody is wanting to use that bank. What I was disgusted about is that the person in charge of the bank is peddling this thing about only six people using the bank. The figures are totally plucked from fresh air. They’re meaningless.”
Mr Pindar says: “It’s become so much more difficult to use the bank. I use this bank a lot, because I don’t do online banking.
“The whole strategy is that they are willing to talk about anything to do with encouraging you to do online banking and all sorts of things, and if you can fit in with that, everything’s hunky dory.”
It is not just individuals who will be affected by the closure. Business owners, many of whom still take and rely on cash from their customers, said it will mean banking will take them much longer.
The town is home to the last remaining cattle market in the area, which is run by auctioneer Alastair Sneddon.
Most Mondays, with the occasional extra auction, buyers and sellers will gather in the old-fashioned cattle market to barter for the animals, which sell for anything from £500 to £2,000.
Many of Mr Sneddon’s customers still want to use cheques, he tells Telegraph Money, and after the branch closes, it is going to be much more difficult to deposit them.
He says: “When you sell your pen of lambs or half a dozen bullocks or whatever it is, you have a choice. You can either take away a cheque or you can leave it to us to pop the money into your account.
“There are plenty of farms that are not particularly well-connected to broadband and so forth, so computer banking isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.”
