THE Wellington branch of the HSBC bank on the corner of Fore Street is to close early in the New Year.

The branch will serve customers for the last time on Friday, February 24, and is among scores of HSBC branches in the country being shut down. Staff were told the news at the end of last week.

Wellington has three other major banks – Lloyds, Barclays and NatWest – and the fear is that these may follow suit.

Customers are not going into their branch any more because smartphones and on-line banking have made banking so much easier.

But some find personal banking important, among them Trish Lettley, joint owner of Wellington newsagents E J Teare.

“We go to the bank across the road almost every day,” she said yesterday (Tuesday). “This is really going to cause us a big headache. It is so convenient for us.

“We have a commercial loan with HSBC and there’s no guarantee that another bank will take us on. So we may have to stay with them which means at least three trips to Taunton a week.”

For the full story see this week’s Wellington Weekly News.