Former RBS manager says banking hub will be ‘a huge plus for Wick’
Wick’s new banking hub will be “a huge plus for the town”, according to a former long-serving bank manager.
Peter Gunn is sure the facility will be welcomed by customers who require a face-to-face service at a time when Wick is about to lose its last bank branch.
He expects “teething problems”, but pointed out: “There are meetings coming up for people to ask any questions they’ve got.”
The five-days-a-week banking hub is to be located in the former Royal Bank of Scotland building in Bridge Street, which closed seven years ago this month.
It is in the process of being refurbished and will be ready to open when the town’s last remaining branch – the Bank of Scotland, on the other side of Bridge Street – closes in June.
Mr Gunn, from Wick, had a 37-year career with RBS, starting in 1981. For 25 years he was manager, responsible at different times for both the Thurso and Wick branches.
“It’s a huge plus for the town because you’ve only got one just now,” Mr Gunn said of the plan for community bankers to take it in turns to visit the hub on a rota basis.
“There are going to be teething problems, like everything that’s new, and they’re just going to have to try and work as best they can.”
Banking hubs are run by Cash Access UK, a not-for-profit company owned and funded by nine major banking providers, and are operated by the Post Office. There are now well over 100 hubs across the UK.
Details of how the Wick facility will operate were set out at a public meeting in the Assembly Rooms in January. Mr Gunn attended in his voluntary capacity as treasurer of the Wick RNLI branch.
Further drop-in sessions are scheduled for Sunday, May 25, and Monday, May 26, from 11am to 3pm both days, at Wick library within the East Caithness Community Facility.
Mr Gunn is urging anyone with questions to go along on either day, or to email support@cashaccess.co.uk
“If anybody has got any questions now, they don’t need to wait until May 25,” he said.
One aspect he himself is still unsure about is the process of paying in cash for business customers if large amounts are involved.
Since 2018 Wick has lost its RBS, TSB and Clydesdale Bank branches as well as Virgin Money. After the Bank of Scotland closes its doors, the nearest high street banking outlets will be 21 miles away in Thurso.
The Wick branch closures have been part of a trend across the country.
“The simple fact of the matter is that fewer people are coming into the bank,” Mr Gunn explained. “When I started in Wick there were about 15 staff. When I finished there were four – that’s all that was required.
“Technology takes over. When I started in the bank, everything was written – there were no computers then. There were old-fashioned ledgers that you had to write people’s balances in.
“Things have changed and changed and changed. But some people want to go into the bank and speak to somebody.”
He acknowledged that trying to phone a bank now can be a “nightmare”.
“People who didn’t have face-to-face options with their bank before will now have that opportunity, because there will be however many banks and the option to have a face-to-face conversation with somebody,” Mr Gunn said.
“I don’t think every town that loses its last bank is getting this. It’s great that they’ve been able to get it.
“Some people will moan about it early on but they’ll ease off.”
He added: “You’re going to have a new ATM machine but it’s not an extra one for the town because the Bank of Scotland one, I imagine, will just go.”
The banking hub will give a new lease of life to one of the most prominent buildings in Wick town centre. The former RBS was constructed around 1830 and altered in 1864, and was once known as the Commercial Bank.
“It just looked horrible with the windows all boarded up,” Mr Gunn said. “It’s going to look better – but then again the Bank of Scotland will become what the Royal Bank was.”
The Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council (RBWCC) has been working closely with Cash Access UK.
At the public meeting in January, community council vice-chairman Allan Bruce told the audience: “I honestly think it’s a success story for Wick and we look forward to getting the doors of the banking hub open.”
RBWCC chairman Allan Farquhar said at the time: “We’ve been absolutely delighted with the way things have developed with Cash Access UK and the local community, and the owners of the property as well.”
