
A banking hub has opened at Tonbridge castle.
The hub is aimed at filling the gap caused by the closure of the Tonbridge branches of all the big High Street banks over the past few years.
Customers of all major banks and building societies can now pay in - and take out - cash from the hub every weekday.
In addition, bank staff from HSBC, Nat West and Barclays will be on site on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays respectively.
Lloyds Bank staff also plan to start attending the hub in person on Fridays for customers to book appointments.
The town was awarded the service after a campaign backed by local businesses and politicians.
Local resident Sally Jane Pearce (pictured below) worked hard on the successful application bid for Tonbridge to get a hub.
She told us: "I am so excited the new banking hub in Tonbridge has now opened in its temporary home in the castle".
Sally Jane Pearce continued: "I am going to ask everyone to just pop in, say hello and sus out the services. I've already been in and they are a really lovely friendly team".
The hub is owned by cash access which is looking for a permanent High Street location and the hunt is going well. An announcement should be made soon about where it will be.
You can read the latest about the hub's services on this link:
https://www.cashaccess.co.uk/hubs/tonbridge-kent/
Sally said she was prompted to launch her application for a hub 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.
But she warns that: "The use of the banking hub will be monitored. If we don't use it, we'll lose it."