A NEW banking hub will be opening up a temporary base in a Wirral town following a lengthy campaign after major banks left the area. On September 20, the banking hub in a vacant unit on Hoylake Road near the Coach and Horses pub opened for the first time and will operate for five days a week.

It follows the launch of a similar hub in West Kirby after bank closures there and already people on the street are welcoming the new change which is being supported by Cash Access UK. Regardless of who they bank with, people will be able to carry out regular bank transactions.

Gaynor McCarthy who runs Options for Hair just a little further up the street said: “To be honest it’s affected my business because we have got the lots of elderly customers who do not use bank cards but can’t get hold of cash either.

“It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s fabulous and it’s better for my business.”

Colin Wood who lives in Moreton said: “It has been a pain, like I’ve got a car but I am a foster carer so sometimes I need money to spend,” adding: ”For me I live in Moreton so I am going to be biassed but it will be handy that I could speak to someone.”

Pamela O’Neill, the operator at the new banking hub, said people would now be able to do things like pay bills, pay money in as well as draw cash out. Each day of the week there will be a different bank in the hub there to offer drop-in advice to anyone passing by.

She said: “It’s giving an option for cash access but the main benefit is that access to the banks because that has been lost with the bank closures. Some banks do not even have a branch in Liverpool. What it’s doing is giving our community that back.”

A permanent hub is in the pipeline but this will take several months. However five banks have agreed to take part in Moreton, and the days when they will be in the hub, are:

Monday: NatWest

Tuesday: Santander

Wednesday: Lloyds

Thursday: Barclays

Friday: Halifax

Moreton West and Saughall Massie councillor Vida Wilson said she has been campaigning on the issue since she was first elected in 2022, adding: “There’s a lot of elderly people around here. People like things on their doorstep and not everyone has the internet or wants an app on their phones.

“For the elderly generation, it can be a problem and people like things face to face. There’s been no banks here for over 12 months, even 18 months. Talking to residents, it’s had a big impact. I was talking to one resident the other day. They said if I want to go to my bank, I have to go to Heswall. It’s not acceptable.

“Banks were always the forerunners of communities years ago and you would have all of them on the high street within 100 yeards of each other and it worked. People are also starting to use cash a lot more because you know where you are with your money.”

Ahead of the new hub opening, Cllr Wilson said she’s went around shops on the high street, adding: “The response we have got from them, it’s been unbelievable. They all say it will make a lot of difference.

“There are still a lot of shops that are cash only.. It’s not viable for some of them because of the charges that the banks make for card transactions.”