Thanks to the creatives who flocked to buy cheap housing half a century ago, Hebden Bridge has long been known for its thriving town centre. But though independent shops, cafes and arts venues are here in abundance, there is one vital lifeline missing – a bank.
Last week, the market town’s last surviving bank, a branch of Lloyds, closed its doors for the final time. Now there are no banks within a 15-mile stretch between Todmorden and Brighouse in West Yorkshire’s Calder Valley.
For residents like Gareth Parry, who works as a counsellor in the area, the departure is nonsensical. “It’s a fabulously wealthy area. People come here to spend money, but there’s no bank,” he says.
The 46-year-old, who also runs a cleaning business and does shifts at a cafe, is often paid in cash. Now he faces bussing the six miles to the nearest bank in Halifax to deposit his earnings.
“I left my old bank because they closed down, and went to Lloyds because they promised they weren’t going to shut,” says Parry. “I find it quite hurtful and dismissive of them to close. I’m pretty miffed.”
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that nearly 6,000 local bank branches across the UK have shut since 2010 – a third of the total. In Hebden Bridge, two other banks – Natwest and Barclays – closed in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
According to Lloyds, whose mobile bank will now visit the town twice a week, customers switching to online services or alternative branches have driven the latest closure.
A spokesperson said: “Our new mobile branch service is already on the road, following our difficult decision to close the Hebden Bridge branch due to the changing ways customers choose to bank with us, which resulted in the branch being used less often.”
Hannah Menzies is one of the young people in the town who can’t remember the last time they stepped into a bank. The 22-year-old sales assistant at health food shop Pennine Provisions says: “You can do almost everything online. It used to take a working day for cash to go into your account, but now it’s instant.”
For small business owners, however, physical banks were a lifeline. Daily takings now have to be transported out of town, paid in at the post office, or picked up by a cash handling company. John Povey, 55, who runs DIY shop Bonsalls, says: “I asked the staff in Lloyds before they closed if we could pre-order change for the till from the mobile branch, but they said we can’t do that.”
Povey adds that while more shoppers in Hebden are going cash-free, particularly since surcharges for using credit or debit cards were banned, he refuses to accept card payments for under £5 because of the transaction fee imposed by banks.
There’s also the issue of the town’s dwindling number of cash machines – one of which was outside the Lloyds branch and was closed along with the bank. According to Beryl Chapman, 74, who thinks it is “disgusting” that there are no longer any banks open within walking distance, ATMs here often run out of cash or are broken into.
For those without the time to travel out of town, Hebden’s small post office offers services for current account holders, such as cash withdrawals and paying in cheques. But while the extra footfall is good for business, postmaster Satnam Singh says the rates they are paid by banks to offer these services are pitiful.
“Predominantly, my workers are doing work for the banks, but in a day they wouldn’t make enough from that for an hourly wage,” says Singh, who is self-employed as a franchisee. “I’m doing it as a community service, but I want banks to pay more for the future of our business.”
But not everyone is as ready to succumb to adapting to life without a bank. David Fletcher, owner of Hebden Mill, which houses a gift shop and Cafe Innovation, has hopes of opening a community bank in the town.
In September, the 85-year-old wrote to Norman Blackwell, a life peer and chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, asking whether they would transfer the bank property to locals.
“I like to be cheeky. If you don’t ask you don’t get,” he says. While a response from the bank’s asset manager said little of the possibility of this happening, he did ask to set up a meeting with Fletcher.
“They can choose to leave under a cloud as the last bank in town, or they could leave us as benefactors,” says Fletcher.
He is vague about how the idea would work, or whether the bank could be used for withdrawals and deposits like a commercial bank. Right now, it’s “just a gleam in the eye”, he says, but among those offering support for his plan are other “prominent businessmen” in the town and Barry Collins, Calderdale council’s cabinet member for regeneration and economic strategy.
Collins said: “For people who haven’t got the digital skills or businesses and workers who are dealing with a lot of cash, it’s important for the community that we try to find an alternative. The council want to try and assist with any alternative ideas suggesting cooperative, mutual models.”
Some, such as Parry, are dubious about the idea: “Can it really guarantee security in the way a bank is legally obliged to?”
But it wouldn’t be the first time there has been a successful community-led response to what businesses and governments fail to do in Hebden Bridge. Already, the town is home to a community-run town hall, a cinema and a cooperative that is building homes for affordable rent.
As Fletcher point outs: “Hebden Bridge is not your ordinary town.”
