A PLANNING application for a new banking hub in Warrenpoint has been lodged.
Last November, it was confirmed that, like Kilkeel, the town – as well as Newcastle, Comber and Portrush – would soon be home to one of the new bank service facilities, and, in recent weeks, plans were submitted to the council by Cash Access UK Limited.
These propose changing the use of the ground floor premises of 7 Church Street – which previously hosted a Post Office – from class A1 (shops) to class A2 (financial, professional and other services), and replacing the building’s front window with a spandrel panel, its front door with a fully automated glazed door and its rear external condenser with a new model.
A design and access statement says that the applicant is ‘a not-for-profit company set up by a number of UK banks and building societies to enable consumers and small businesses to access cash, deposit and basic banking services where they are needed across the UK’, and that it facilitates ‘the provision of a range of services, including shared banking spaces on local high streets’.
Plans illustrate that internal partition walls will be installed to create a meeting room, an office and a staff room.
Lat year’s hub announcement was made by LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network.
“Banking hubs are a shared banking space, similar to a traditional bank branch, but available to everyone,” a spokesperson said in November.
“The hub will consist of a counter service operated by Post Office employees, where customers of any bank can withdraw and deposit cash, make bill payments and carry out regular banking transactions.
“In addition, there will be private spaces where customers can speak to community bankers from their own bank for more complicated matters that require specialist knowledge or privacy.
“The banks will be working on a rotating basis, so there will be staff from different banks available on different days.”
It was confirmed at that point that Cash Access UK Limited would be delivering the hub.
Its website advises that ‘community bankers are usually provided by the banks with the most customers in the local area’.
It also highlights that ‘nine firms are supporting the hubs in the UK’, namely Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group, Santander, TSB and Virgin Money.
