Yorkshire Bank to close its town centre branch

Yorkshire Bank in Clitheroe which has been earmarked for closure.

The branch, which is situated in Clitheroe town centre on Market Place, will close on April 27th.

A total of 39 Yorkshire Bank branches will close this year - 18 of which are in the bank’s heartland county of Yorkshire.

As well as Clitheroe, the bank’s Barnoldswick branch will also close on May 5th.

This means the closest branch for Ribble Valley customers will be in Nelson which is just over 11 miles from Clitheroe.

It is anticipated that 200 jobs will be lost as a result of all the closures.

The bank said in a statement released this week that the number of customers using their bank for day-to-day transactions across the banking industry in the UK has fallen by a third since 2011.

This ongoing decline in branch usage, married to a sharp and sustained increase in digital and mobile engagement, has driven a shift to providing greater access to day-to-day banking services remotely, on the move and outside of normal business hours.

It added that the bank had committed £350m over the next two years to bring together this shift to digital.

Gavin Opperman, customer banking director at Yorkshire Bank, said: “While the decision to close any branch is never an easy one, it is important that we, in line with other banks operating in the UK market, continue to respond to changes in the way customers want to bank with us.

“The changes announced continue our journey towards a model that combines an enhanced digital platform with a right sized branch network; allowing customers to interact with us through a wide range of channels – mobile, online, telephone, in-branch – whenever and however they want.”

For more on this story see next Thursday's Clitheroe Advertiser and Times.