Mobile bank discussion prompts car park hire debate

The council heard that the NatWest’s mobile unit will visit the library car park once a week, while Lloyds’ larger mobile van will use the community centre car park three days a week, with an area to be coned off to make room for the unit.

But cllr Sue Kingston asked why Lloyds could use the car park if the breast cancer screening unit could not be accommodated in the same area for very occasional visits.

She said: “It’s not as big and it only wants to come for two and a half days a week every three years.”

Mr Burt said the cancer unit had ‘never actually asked’ to use the car park and was welcome to make an offer to the centre for the cost of using the area, as Lloyds had done.

He said: “If councillor Kingston would like to ask the breast unit to make an approach to the centre as a prospective customer we’ll snap their hand off but we’re not going to go chasing people.”

Clerk Greg Burt told the council it had been ‘challenging’ to pin down Lloyds to a date for an alternative meeting since the bank declined to attend a public meeting in January about the branch closure.