LLOYDS BANK has announced that it is to cut its opening hours in Llandovery from five days a week to two with effect from June 1.
Llandovery has been hit by a series of cuts in hours and closures of banking facilities since the closure of HSBC in the town’s Market Square in 2012.
Although the popularity of online banking services is partly responsible for the closure, fears have been expressed that a decline in commercial activity in the town will be hastened by the reduction in bank opening hours.
Fiona Walker, Chair of Llandovery’s Chamber of Commerce, was less despondent. She told The Herald: “It is a shame that the bank is cutting its hours. Lloyds Bank has a long history in the town, stretching back to the original Llandovery Bank – the ‘Black Ox’ Bank – founded in the eighteenth Century. However, I do not believe that the impact upon the town or its businesses will be anywhere near as bad as when HSBC shut its doors in 2012. We will adapt, as we have before, it is the way of the world we live in that things change. This issue is not peculiar to Llandovery alone. The development of online banking, and the increased range of banking services offered by the Post Office, for instance, does mean that other options exist.”
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