Express & Star

It’s ridiculous! Customers hit out at Lloyds Bank branch closure plan in Codsall

Customers have hit out over a bank’s decision to close its doors after 80 years.

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The Lloyds Bank branch in Codsall is set to close as part of a nationwide move after officials said the number of customers visiting some of their branches had declined in recent years.

The claim was branded ‘ridiculous’ by Johnny Jones, aged 26, manager of Village Coffee, who said: “It’s been a big part of our business this place, it’s really helpful and handy to have it here in the village.

“For Lloyds to come out and say it’s not a busy place is ridiculous, they’re understaffed in there, you’ve got a seven-man deep queue, it’s ridiculous.

“We’re obviously going to have to change bank, we’re going to have to look at where we get our change from, there’s going to be all sorts of repercussions for businesses around here.”

WATCH customers speak out over bank branch closure

News broke on Wednesday that the financial giant is set to take the axe to 49 branches and almost 100 jobs nationwide and comes just a month after Lloyds closed the village bank in Brewood, just four miles away.

Supply teacher Gemma Pritchard, 41, from Codsall, said: “It’s really sad. We will have to go to Tettenhall in Wolverhampton to bank.

“It will be hard, particularly for my family. My dad has got Parkinson’s so it’s easy for him to come here and do a little bit with his independence. He won’t have that with it moving away.”

Allan Bennett, 79, owner of Allan Bennett butchers in Codsall, said the move would ‘definitely affect business’.

He added: “It will affect us a lot really. We get all our change from there, we also bank with them as well, so we’ve got to obviously change and find another bank.”

A Lloyds Bank spokesman said around 72 per cent of personal customers in Codsall now regularly used alternative branches or other ways to bank such as online banking.