A TOWN councillor has spoken of her delight after her campaign to protect residents affected by bank closures hit a significant landmark.

Earlier this year Cllr Carolyn Preece handed in a 300-signature strong petition to Lloyds Bank after it had announced its plans to close its Buckley branch in 2019.

This closure, the Leader reported at the time, will leave the town without a bank and will mean residents and businesses have to travel to other areas such as Mold to access face-to-face banking services.

Cllr Preece has now taken her concerns to a national audience via the campaign site 38 Degrees with a petition to the Treasury Select Committee.

The petition, entitled ‘Don’t cut people off from banking when closing branches’ calls for a change in the law to give banks a ‘duty of care’ to protect customers’ access to services.

It also calls for measures to ensure that when decisions are made on whether to close bank branches or ATMs, the needs of vulnerable customers are protected.

In just under two weeks the petition has received more than 100,000 signatures which means it can now be debated in Parliament.

Cllr Preece told the Leader: “I am amazed and delighted that people are supporting this - it really is something that needs to be debated in Parliament.

“The amount of emails I have had from this have been phenomenal.

“I started this because of what is happening in Buckley, which really is a shame, but it is not just about Buckley and Flintshire – this is affecting the whole country.

“It is not acceptable. Banks should have a duty of care to the community.

“The majority of people can bank online now but this affects the elderly and also businesses.”

The petition page adds: “Banks only exist because we put our money there, they make obscene profits from the people of the UK.

“The Government should ensure that the banking industry has a ‘duty of care’ to keep some branches open, and not exclude whole groups of people from access to financial services.

“Banks should have more than simply profit on their minds when making decisions to close branches, as these decisions have huge negative impacts on many people’s lives.”

To see or sign the petition visit https://home.38degrees.org.uk

The page can be located by searching for the keywords ‘treasury banking closing branches’.