Tuesday February 18th 2025
Photo by Nick Pampoukidis.
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
An investigation has been launched after concerns were raised at how a ‘cashless society’ was impacting on older folk in Eyemouth.
Residents in the Berwickshire town don’t have access to cash from ATM machines from 10pm to 7am and withdrawal limits are also proving restrictive. The ATM in the General Store, open 7am to 6pm, only allows withdrawals of £60 a day. The cash-point in the Post Office, located in the petrol station, is accessible from 9am to 4pm. Finally, there is a LINK cash-line in the town’s Co-op, which closes at 10pm.
Berwickshire East Councillor James Anderson has been highlighting the issue of a lack of access to cash for more than two years.
Now the LINK banking group has responded by agreeing to launch a formal investigation, a spokesperson saying: “Sometimes things do go wrong and when this happens, we want to put things right and to make sure that it does not happen again.
“We will now investigate this issue as a formal complaint.”
However, Mr Anderson is not “holding out much hope” and is insisting that he wants a representative of LINK to pay a visit to Eyemouth to see the issue for themselves rather than carrying out the probe “on Google Maps”.
He said: “I am concerned that the current approach to addressing complaints, which relies primarily on information gleaned from sources such as Google Maps, may not fully capture the complexities of the local landscape and the specific needs and concerns of our senior residents.
“I am also concerned the information used by LINK to back up decisions, is taken from sources that suit the outcome desired by LINK.
“I have been trying to address this issue for more than two years and have been fobbed off at every turn.
“I represent an area with thousands of residents, Eyemouth itself has four thousands residents and being fobbed off will not be an acceptable outcome.
“The cash-point at the Co-op is quite often not working or empty and if you want more than sixty quid it’s up to the Post Office at the petrol station on an industrial estate, half a mile up the steepest possible hill. A lot are struggling up that hill as they get older.
“The East Berwickshire area has been left at times without access to cash. This has a negative impact on local shops and businesses and removed the option of cash for many.
“LINK I believe have been complicit in removing cash from our communities as part of a push toward a cashless society which nobody voted for or asked for.
“I urge LINK once again to properly look at access to cash to lessen local business charges by banks and allow local residents the freedom to choose how they spend their money.”
The LINK spokesperson said: “We will review the complaint and arrange to investigate the concerns, based on the information provided.
“We will try to resolve the complaint promptly and fairly, and set out what we propose to do to put things right.”
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