Councillors criticse withdrawal of bank mobile branch

Turriff and District councillor Alastair Forsyth and Central Buchan councillor Geoff Crowson have criticised the planned withdrawal of the Bank of Scotland’s mobile branch from local communities.

The bank has announced that the service will stop calling at communities including New Pitslgio and Turriff with effect from May 2024.

Commenting, Cllr Alastair Forsyth said: “It’s not that long ago since the physical Bank of Scotland Branch in Turriff closed and we were assured that customers would be able to continue to access banking services locally through the introduction of the Mobile Branch. Now it seems this, too, is being withdrawn from next May.

"It’s difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Mobile Branch was just cover at the time to make it easier to close the Branch.”

Mobile branches will go.

Councillor for Central Buchan, Geoff Crowson, added: “Bank of Scotland now need to step up and inform the communities affected how it intends to support vulnerable customers in servicing their bank accounts.

"It’s great that the Post Office is still there in most communities to pick up where the banks are leaving off, but not everyone will be able to go online or service their needs through the Post Office.”

The bank said it had been looking at how customers were using the mobile branches, with many of them being used less and customer choosing other ways to bank instead.

"Because of this, we’ve made the decision to end our service in May, 2024,” it said.