Royal Bank of Scotland is to shut its Hale branch as part of a wave of closures across England and Wales.
The bank is to close the Ashley Road branch, a long-standing fixture of Hale village, on November 8th.
The news means there will be just one remaining bank in Hale village – Barclays. Timperley will no longer have a bank from this Friday while the numbers in Altrincham are dwindling after the recent closures of TSB and Yorkshire Bank in the town centre.
A total of 162 branches will be closing across England and Wales, with 31 located in Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Its Sale, Alderley Edge and Cheadle branches are also shutting down.
Almost 800 jobs will go as a result and staff will be offered voluntary redundancy.
RBS branches in England and Wales, and the NatWest business in Scotland, had been earmarked for a new “challenger bank” under the revived name Williams & Glyn.
However, that project is now not going ahead and the bank has reviewed its branch network.
An RBS spokesman said: “We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England and Wales.
“As a result, we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we’ve made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches.
“Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs.”
