Building society confirms Bridgnorth branch opening date - and eyes up other Shropshire locations
A building society is set to open its first new branch for 15 years in Bridgnorth next month - paving the way for other rural locations in Shropshire.
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Dudley Building Society says the new branch in Bridgnorth's Central Court shopping arcade will officially open on Wednesday, June 4.
In an announcement in January, the society said it was planning to open a new branch in the town as part of a plan to expand face-to-face services in Shropshire, with other potential locations in the county, including Shifnal and Claverley, being lined up as possible locations to deliver rural banking services.
Dudley Building Society says it intends to establish a foothold in Bridgnorth for extra services in Shropshire and on the Welsh borders, using what it describes as a "hub and spoke" model to deliver rural banking.
A so-called spoke service has been running in Bridgnorth's Printworks for the past two months ahead of the full branch opening next month, which has been enthusiastically received by residents, according to Simon Dodd, Head of Retail at the Dudley Building Society.
"Our strategy is to continue to invest in the region and in branches on the high street, so with other banks pulling out it's about what we're trying to offer, which is a bit different from what's been done traditionally," he said.
"It's particularly interesting in Shropshire because all the villages are quite independent and while we couldn't necessarily open a full-time branch in those locations, we can still bring our services out to customers.
"Traditionally you have a shared location in somewhere like the library, but we have a hub and spoke model. Our hub will be in Bridgnorth as a main branch with other services branching out from there, where members of our team will head out and open accounts and carry out normal banking services in those rural communites.
"For the last two months we've had a spoke service in the Printworks in Bridgnorth, and we're looking at other locations like Shifnal and Claverley - so taking our services out to our customers rather than having them coming in."
The society says final work is taking place fitting out the new branch over the remainder of the month, ahead of a potential soft-launch at the end of May. The branch is due to officially open on June 4.
The move from Dudley Building Society comes after an announcement earlier this year by retail bank Lloyds that it was set to close its branch in the town this summer, which sparked an outcry from Bridgnorth residents.
Lloyds said the closure was driven by a fall in people visiting the branch, preferring instead to use online banking services.
Data from consumer survey group Which released in December showed that over 6,000 bank branches have closed in the UK since 2015.
