Martin Crumpton, chair of Keep Llangollen Speecial (KLS) has written this piece expressing his views on the issue of the closure of the town's HSBC Bank:
In the run-up to Christmas, it’s scrag-end of grants and sponsorship for us, but filet mignon for the banks.
We could cock a snook at HSBC over their inflexible plans to close their Llangollen branch, and switch our accounts to Barclays.
Barclays, having announced 1,700 job cuts and undisclosed branch closures, are likely to be next.
If they are, we could cock another snook at them and switch to NatWest.
However, if RBS, in the guise of NatWest follows suit as they always do, we’ll be left bereft of snooks and nobody to cock them at anyway.
We genuinely find their cut-backs difficult to swallow. What other industry sector cuts back in a time of banking plenty? Perhaps they’re making a pre-emptive strike in advance of all the talk of banking levies and caps on bonuses?
KLS has put pressure on the Welsh Government and we will watch with interest. We are also pursuing alternative, ethical banking providers.
We don’t have to take this lying down.
The Chamber of Trade and Tourism has been working hard on this issue too, which is very much appreciated by all.
In support of the Chamber, KLS has agreed to ask our members to attend their PR exercise tomorrow, the main event being at noon, and we ask everyone to do so – not to heckle the staff but to show HSBC’s faceless hierarchy that we value the bank’s presence and maybe show them how counter-productive their decision is.
On a much happier note, and despite watching snow fall as I write this, the one, true Father Christmas is getting his elves to work overtime to provide everything we need in Llangollen’s local shops.
The fake Santas in the large supermarkets is more likely to steal presents from you by bogus offers and not-very-special Special Offers, such as Buy One, Waste One Free.
Tell your friends and neighbours that the next Buy Local Day (Friday 13th December) is where the genuine Christmas Spirit begins!
chair@keepllangollenspecial.org.uk
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