Business owners in the heart of Port Glasgow raised concerns about access during a business surgery that Stuart McMillan MSP held earlier this month.
The Greenock and Inverclyde MSP conducted his business surgery in Port Glasgow town centre on 5 August to ask owners if they had concerns about the closure of the town’s Bank of Scotland branch – the last remaining bank branch in the area.
The branch’s closure also leaves the town centre without access to an ATM, meaning people will have to go to Tesco just beyond the town centre if they need cash.
Parking limits on the town centre streets were also highlighted as an issue affecting custom.
Commenting, Stuart said:
“When Bank of Scotland announced that they were closing their Port Glasgow branch, former MP Ronnie Cowan and myself met with Bank of Scotland to ask questions on behalf of constituents about access to cash.
“Bank of Scotland made clear that the branch was not well used, and footfall did not merit it remaining open. I recognise that how people bank has changed much over recent years and customers often shop around to get the best deals on their accounts and mortgages.
“Both Ronnie and I did however stress that the loss of the ATM attached to the branch was our biggest concern, as this would limit access to cash.
“LINK is an independent organisation responsible for assessing customers’ access to cash when bank branches announce closures, and according to the Bank of Scotland, their branch closure and ATM removal did not result in LINK having any concerns about people having less access to cash.
“I therefore wanted to carry out a business surgery in the Port town to gather evidence for myself about business and customer reliance on cash. Of the 18 businesses my staff and I managed to speak to on the day, half of them either rely solely on cash payments or prefer cash payments.
“This proves that access to cash is particularly important within Port Glasgow, so I will be putting my surgery findings to LINK to ask them to review their decision.
“Ordinarily, 12 months needs to have passed before they’ll review this, but I’m hopeful that this insight will result in them undertaking another assessment sooner.
“Bank of Scotland assured me that businesses can use the Post Office for their business banking, and members of the public can bank there too. However, this is a small store and the only one in the town centre, so I fear it could easily become overwhelmed.
“I will therefore be contacting the Post Office to ask what engagement they’ve had with businesses in Port Glasgow to determine the level of demand that this franchise might expect. Hopefully this may also help inform dialogue with LINK about the need for an ATM within the town.
“On the issue of parking, many businesses told me that it was limited to 30 minutes in the town centre. However, this changed a few years ago and increased to 60 minutes. Clearly then there is confusion around this, so I contacted Cllr Christopher Curley so we can work together to make more businesses aware of this change.
“I want to thank the businesses that my staff and I spoke with for taking the time to raise these issues with us, and I will write back out to them in due course once I have progressed these points.”
Cllr Curley added:
“I have previously highlighted how the differences in approach to parking limits across Inverclyde is confusing for drivers. I know this is something that council officers are mindful of too.
“The limit within the Port town centre was however increased to one hour in 2022, but clearly not all businesses are aware of this change. I wonder then how many people are put off shopping in the town because they too think they only have 30 minutes before they must move.
“I’m grateful to Stuart for sharing the results of his business surgery with me and I hope we can help highlight these changes to parking limits.”
