Saturday 7 March 2009

Bagshot Banking Crisis!

Saturday, 7 March 2009

A large crowd of us turned out this morning in Bagshot to protest at the proposed closure of the Nationwide Building Society branch.

Nationwide's area director turned up (which was appreciated - he could have stayed away) and was beseiged by angry local people wanting to know why Nationwide were proposing to leave Bagshot without any banking services.

I spoke to lots of local residents and business-people. Local businesses are particularly concerned that if Nationwide closes then many people simply will not go into Bagshot and all the local shops will suffer. Local residents are very concerned at the prospect of having to go all the way to Camberley to visit the Nationwide. This is a really significant problem for some of the older people who live in the area.

Huge credit must go to Glyn Carpenter (of The Village Cafe, Bagshot) for taking the lead in organising the protest. She worked hard all week with other local business-people and local Councillors such as myself and Valerie White to co-ordinate the effort.

National and Local Press turned up with journalists and photographers from the Daily Mail and Camberley News.

Our MP Michael Gove and I spent a lot of time talking to the two guys from Nationwide, trying to figure how to persuade the company to keep the branch open - more info as soon as we have it...

The movie below tells the rest of the story in pictures.

1 comment:

  1. Glyn Carpenter1 April 2009 at 11:52

    This just shows how community action can work if we all fight together we win together. The next stage is to travel to Swindon on Tuesday 14th April to hand over the petition. The coach will leave the Village Cafe at 9.30 am and we will be back by 2.00 pm
    EVERY ONE IS WELCOME PLEASE JOIN, IN COMMUNITY ACTION.

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