Banking Hub shambles as Town Council draws a blank

Welshpool’s Mayor has labelled the situation over missing disabled access to the Banking Hub and the absence of a cash machine as “scandalous” after being unable to update his Town Council on any progress last night.

MyWelshpool chased Cash Access UK, the company responsible for Banking Hubs, last month after fed-up readers shared their frustration with us, and Cllr Phil Owen delivered his disheartening update to full council last night.

The Banking Hub opened last November to return high street banking services to the town centre following the exodus of the big-name banks.

But it opened without disabled access and an ATM, with promises made that they would be sorted as soon as possible. However, our investigations last month revealed that the hold-up is down to installing a disabled ramp that wouldn’t be impacted by the location of the ATM.

Seven months on from its official opening and we seem no nearer to either being put in place, with no sign of it even reaching an official planning desk, according to the Mayor.

“I have got concerns that the disabled access and ATM that we have been promised for so long haven’t appeared and I have heard various excuses to why that is the case, mostly that it has been held up by planning application,” Cllr Owen told the full council meeting last night, adding that staff at the branch were as much in the dark.

The Mayor said that his enquiries revealed there were no planning applications pending before Powys highways or planning departments, leading to him contacting Cash Access UK direct.

“Apparently the whole issue is still with their design and architectural department who have to draw up a plan which will meet the requirements of both the highways and the planning department, but nothing yet has been put to them,” he said.

“It is a little scandalous considering the Hub has been open since December and we have no cash point in Broad Street. It’s not very good.”

After Cllr Sally Fitzgerald explained that the Town Council Planning Committee had approved a design “months ago”, Cllr Richard Church, also a Powys county councillor, said it was “ludicrous” that “this great facility is not able to do its job properly” adding that it was his belief that the Highways Agency (Welsh Government) were responsible for the decision due to Broad Street being a trunk road.

Cllr Nick Howells shared the depressing fact that staff were suffering verbal abuse because of it, adding: “It is nothing to do with them.”

Cllr Phil Owen concluded: “They (Cash Access UK) are now aware of it. They assured me it would now be expedited so an application will reach Powys ASAP, and they assured me that there will be no question of dispensing of either the ATM or the disabled access, they will still do both as soon as they come up with a schematic drawing which will accommodate both. Hopefully it will all be resolved before too long.”

Our enquiries last month drew this response from an insider close to the issue at Cash Access UK: “In terms of the timeline – we hope it will be soon, but we don’t have a specific date we can give you at the moment.”