Bank to shut Wigan town centre branch

Yet another prominent name will disappear from the already depleted town centre when the Market Place branch closes its doors for the last time in March.

Virgin Money, which now owns the Yorkshire Bank, said that the shutdown, along with another in Bury, had been due to falling footfall and a growing use of online and telephone banking.

Customers have been told that they will be able to perform a limited number of transactions at the nearby post office, but otherwise the nearest counter services in the spring and thereafter will be found in Bolton, St Helens and Preston.

One long-time customer said: “This didn’t really come as a surprise. You lose count of the number of bank branches that have been closing in Wigan and around the country for years and years and Wigan was lucky to escape in the last round of Yorkshire Bank closures in March this year.

“But that doesn’t make the news any more palatable. I’m an older customer who has always wanted banking to be a face-to-face business. I have an aversion, a fear even of doing everything through a phone app. I just don’t trust them. It doesn’t help that I’m no good with technology, but businesses are quite happy to throw folk like me on the scrap heap these days.

“I want a friendly face, I want someone intelligent to interact with when I am carrying out transactions. I will miss all that when the Yorkshire Bank closes.”

Another said: “There’s no way I’m making round trips of more than an hour to go to the bank. I am seriously considering jumping ship but of course all the others might soon be going the same way.”

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