Former Bermondsey MP Sir Simon Hughes has closed his TSB account and is calling on locals to do the same in protest at the bank closing its Southwark Park Road branch.
TSB is closing its branch near Bermondsey’s Blue market next Wednesday (April 27), becoming the last bank to leave the area. The nearest TSB branch will now be in Peckham.
Sir Simon told the News: “After many years of banking with TSB in the Blue, and because I believe it is a really bad move for TSB to pull out of the Blue, I shall stop using TSB from this month. This will be the last bank leaving the Blue and is a bad move when everybody should be trying to support local shopping centres.
“I shall move to another bank in SE1 or SE16 but have not decided which yet. I hope other customers will do the same – to send a big message to TSB that Bermondsey people and businesses will not just accept this closure without making the best protest we can.”
Plans to give Bermondsey’s Blue market a 21st Century makeover
A spokesperson for TSB said: “We have not taken the decision to close our Bermondsey branch lightly, but we have to respond to declining branch use and increasing numbers of customers switching to digital banking services.
“Customer transactions at the branch have fallen by 30% since January 2019 and we see no prospect of branch transactions returning to pre-Covid levels.
“The closest Post Office is located under 0.1 miles from the Bermondsey branch and the nearest free to use ATM is under 0.1 miles away.