BANKING giant Santander is to close its branch in Ross-on-Wye in July, it was announced last week.

Despite a number of independent traders recently opening up in Ross, the high-street bank made a decision that 95 branches across the country would be closing from June, but hadn’t informed its staff before the news was announced nationally.

Staff only found out when they arrived at work and were taken into meeting and told the Ross branch would be closing on July 30.

Staff could be seen inside in what looked like an urgent meeting. A note had been put up on the front door stating the branch would not be opening until 11am.

With Santander pulling out of town, it leaves Ross with only one remaining banking facility left - Nationwide. The two building societies, Coventry and Principality are not part of the national main banking facilities.

Santander states the branch closures will put 750 jobs nationally at risk of redundancy and added that since 2019 there has been ‘a rapid movement of customers choosing to do their banking digitally’, the bank aims to close the branches in a way that will ‘minimise the impact it may have on our customers’.

The banking giant, which bought up former British building society giants Abbey National, Bradford and Bingley and the Alliance and Leicester, has said that the areas set to lose their community branch will be assisted instead by ‘community bankers’ who will visit local facilities such as libraries, on a weekly basis.

A Santander spokesman said: “Closing a branch is always a very difficult decision and we spend a great deal of time assessing where and when we do this and how to minimise the impact it may have on our customers.

“However, we believe that the introduction of our new community bankers and the exciting plans we have for our remaining network of branches and work cafés, alongside the rapid and innovative improvements to our mobile banking app, will provide the right balance of digital banking and human interaction when required.”

To support the changes, Santander will be proactively contacting all potentially vulnerable customers by phone and will assist those customers of closing branches to find other ways to bank that best suit their needs.

Ross County Councillor Ed O’Driscoll said: “The impact on the town will be significant—particularly for local businesses and older residents who rely on in-person banking services.

“What makes this even more upsetting is the way staff appear to have found out.

“What does this mean for Ross-on-Wye? With an aging population, a growing town, and major housing developments planned, we need proper banking facilities.

“Losing another bank is a huge blow, and we need to act to explore alternative solutions.

“I won’t let this go without a fight. As a local councillor, I’m already looking into ways to maintain a counter service in the town.

“I’m aware that Herefordshire Council has plans to open a business hub/managed workspace in all the county’s market towns in 2025-26 as part of their delivery plan.

“I’ve already contacted the lead officer at Herefordshire Council to ask whether the idea of combining this with a banking hub could be explored.

“Many other towns have successfully set up shared banking hubs where multiple banks offer services under one roof—why not Ross?

Gwyneth Gill said that online banking doesn’t appeal to us older generation of folks and added: “I like walking into Santander and getting help. I can’t sing the praises of Santander in Ross highly enough. They have been fantastic and have certainly helped me in the past. I feel so sorry for the staff.”

Ross once had a full complement of banking organisations, but these giants began closing its doors in 2018 when the Nat West pulled out in June of that year, followed by Barclays in August 2021, the TSB in June 2022, the HSBC in June 2023 and Lloyds bank closed in December last year.

● Additional reporting by Ella Hamilton.