Boost For Business

Sally told West Kent Radio: "I was so excited. It was just a real 'wow' moment. Along the way I'd had some real ups and downs and I didn't know if it was ever going to happen.  I knew it was the right thing to happen".

She continued: "In a way, I'd been very hopeful at this last stage because it was starting to feel like the submissions we'd put to LINK were starting to be heard and understood. So it felt like it was moving in the right direction. While I was hopeful, I still didn't know it was going to happen, so it was a real positive happy moment."

Listen to Sally's reaction here:

Sally said she was prompted to launch her campaign when she found that Tonbridge businesses were struggling to take cash because they couldn't get change and then had to drive to Tunbridge Wells banks to deposit their cash takings. 

Talking about the closure of HSBC which was the last business bank in Tonbridge, Sally said: "It felt like a really sad thing to happen to the town."

Sally used to work in financial regulation and now writes business guidance books.

A company called Cash Access UK (which is owned by the banks) will own the hub and the Post Office will appoint a sub-postmaster to manage the banking hub.

There will be a counter to do banking as in a regular bank and a meeting room.  

It will be staffed by bank employees on a rota basis, with Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC, Nat West and TSB turning up on a day each every week.  This will allow customers to arrange face to face meetings with staff from their own bank.

Although the Post Office that opened south of the station can provide banking services, Sally says this is not enough capacity for the town and isn't ideal for business banking as it is also a shop. 

Sally says the new banking hub will mean: "If you are a business and you go in to bank a thousand pounds, you will be able to go to a banking institution and you haven't got to queue with someone posting a letter or buying some envelopes."

Cash Access UK will now be looking for sites and Sally expects them to look for a site near the independent businesses near the castle. Sally says the old empty HSBC site will probably be too big for the new hub, as the hub provides one counter and one meeting room.

The rules say the banking hub has to be in place within three months, so Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council are likely to offer some temporary space. Sally says: "For me the possible front runner would be the castle". 

The castle did host a temporary Post Office when the Post Office site in WH Smith closed.

The MP for Tonbridge, Tom Tugendhat (pictured below) said: “Following the closure of so many banks on our High Street in the past couple of years, a banking hub is clearly what Tonbridge needs – I am grateful to LINK for agreeing to recommend that one be opened in Tonbridge.

“With challenges for businesses banking and so many of us relying on cash, better banking options in Tonbridge will help support the local economy.

“I am grateful to everyone who has campaigned for this change, led by Sally Jane Pearce, and look forward to a banking hub being opened over the next few months.”

Uckfield in East Sussex has also just learnt that it is to get a banking hub.  But Swanley was not successful.

The banking hubs are being set up around the UK as part of a new regulation brought in by the last Conservative government. The Tonbridge application was initially refused but granted after an appeal and a review.

Asked if the banking hub might eventually itself also be axed on cost grounds, Sally told us: "The banks are legally required to do this."

But Sally also warns that: "The use of the banking hub will be monitored.  If we don't use it, we'll lose it."