Banks set to close in Kent as more people use online services

Elderly residents in Strood are furious as Lloyds announces they'll be closing their doors on the high street next year.

Transcript

00:00 The scars of a former bank and yesterday Lloyd's announced that their branch will be closing

00:07 next year and NatWest have already said they're closing their branch in the area.

00:13 Halifax has closed and we come down here all the time to use it and the ATMs are closing.

00:18 I think they're just honest. I don't know, they're trying to make it difficult for elderly

00:22 people and everybody. I'm not happy about it at all.

00:25 What about you, do you use it actually? No, no, my wife does it all.

00:30 But the older generation are worried. They didn't grow up with that technology. They're

00:35 concerned about being able to spot scams online.

00:40 I wouldn't know whether you was being scammed online because every day it's basically getting

00:45 done you know.

00:46 In a statement Lloyd's told us customers can also bank with them through the post office,

00:51 their banking hub or via a community banker. They also have confirmed that colleagues will

00:56 be offered other roles across their businesses. But many of those schemes are not in Strood.

01:04 This morning I put in an application to Link who manage the ATM network in the country

01:09 and cash access and asked them to consider this area because there's no banks on the

01:13 peninsula at all. Strood's just lost two and there's none in Rochester. So we really need

01:18 to look at better solutions and that would mean different banks coming into a central

01:23 location like a post office and it would really help fix this problem of the banking deserts

01:27 that we're getting across the country at the moment.

01:30 But it's not just banks. Wilco closed their doors earlier this month.

01:35 All the shops are going. I mean you go down, if you do go down Gillingham or you come here

01:40 there's not a lot. You think, oh well where's it all gone?

01:44 And as the number of units that remain empty increase, that's putting increased pressure

01:50 on the local economy. Nationwide says they're not moving anywhere.

01:55 They soon might be the only branch in the area. Gabriel Morris for Caine TV in Strood.