Anna Firth, Member of Parliament for Southend West, today dropped in on the temporary Barclay’s Bank pop-up in the Leigh Community Centre.
Anna has been a passionate advocate for the maintenance of in-person banking services having previously raised it in a debate in the House of Commons on the Financial Services and Markets Bill.
In the debate on the 7th December 2022 Firth said:
“I wish to place on record that in picturesque Leigh-on-Sea, a part of wonderful Southend West, we have lost every single one of our high street banks over the past four years.”
…
“Senior citizens in Southend West do not want to bank online, they do not want to bank on an app, and they should not have to.”
The MP’s visit today comes shortly after she opened a permanent banking facility within the local Post Office which offers free cash withdrawal, free cash deposits and other banking services with little queuing and faster service than at an ordinary bank.
The Barclay’s facility is open on Wednesdays and offers advice to customers rather than actual banking services but Anna said she was pleased to support it as another step forwards in maintaining proper in-person banking facilities in her constituency.
Speaking about the visit, Anna said:
"I’m very glad to see that following our opening of the Post-Office Banking Hub in Leigh there are more in-person banking services in our community
“It was a pleasure to drop into the Barclay’s advice station in the Community centre to discuss what services it offers and how much it is benefiting the community!
“In that period between the closure of the high street banks and these new facilities being opened, I spoke to countless constituents who had no online banking and were therefore completely financially isolated. This was, in my view, an intolerable situation and that’s why I’ve been campaigning so hard for a return to cash access and face-to-face banking.
“Now that we’ve got that back, I am determined to make sure things stay that way!”
