RESIDENTS are being encouraged to give their backing to a new banking hub in Royton.
The town has lost all of its high street banks, meaning a trip to Oldham town centre for customers to access banking services.
This can often prove difficult, particularly for elderly people, so Royton Post Office and a local councillor are clubbing together to seek community support for a hub which sees representatives from different banks in the same place on different days.
Postmaster Paul Coughlan and his team, together with Royton North’s councillor Lewis Quigg, have been collecting as many survey signatures as possible to help make it happen.
“If you don’t want to fill in a survey straight away or are pushed for time, then you can collect one from the Post Office in Royton and drop it off at your convenience,” said Cllr Quigg.
“Sadly, Royton has lost all its high street banks and we are now attempting to get a review to see if we can get a banking hub in Royton. If we don’t try, we will never know.”
Banking hubs – which have opened across the country – are a shared space on the high street that can be used by customers of different major banks.
They offer a counter service where people and businesses can withdraw and deposit cash, as well as talk about more complex issues on the day their bank is in the hub.
Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon has previously expressed his support for the return of local banking services, as a way of sustaining high streets and town centres.
Between five and six million adults are estimated to rely on cash in their daily lives.
The Government has set a target to roll out 350 banking hubs by 2029, with 230 expected to be open by the end of this year.
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