SOUTHAMPTON residents are set to be left without another bank after Lloyds announced it would be closing its branch in Woolston.

It means hundreds of customers will be left with just one bank on the east side of the city, which is in Bitterne.

The news comes as part of wider closures across the UK, after the Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest announced hundreds of their branches would also be shutting.

The Woolston branch, which sits on the corner of Victoria Road, will shut in March 2018 due to ‘changing ways customers choose to bank’.

According to Lloyds, 72 per cent of customers in Woolston already use other branches and alternative banking methods, including online and over the phone.

A Lloyds Bank spokesperson said: “We have made the difficult decision to close the Lloyds Bank, Woolston branch on March 5 2018.

“This is due to the changing ways our customers choose to bank with us, which has resulted in the branch being used less often.

“We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause and have informed customers of the closest alternative branch, which is Bitterne.”

The bank also said that they were proactively speaking to customers about the services that The Post Office offers, which they say is 0.1 miles away. Other customers will also have their accounts realigned to Above Bar Street.

Southampton and Itchen MP Royston Smith criticised the decision, and it’s timing during the Christmas period.

He said: “Hundreds of local people use this bank every month and many of these have no other way of banking.

“Many of them are elderly.

“Some are from the local businesses.

“This is the last bank in Woolston and pretty much the only banking facility on this side of the city except Bitterne.

“Woolston is growing and while I acknowledge any more people are banking online, I think this is one closure too many. It’s a little insensitive to make this announcement just before Christmas.

“The taxpayer had to bail this bank out and I am launching a petition which I intend to present on the floor of the House of Commons.”

The bank said it couldn’t confirm if there would be any redundancies. It said that although there would be some reductions across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland as a result of the closures already confirmed, they are ‘not in a position’ to talk about them ‘at this stage.

It added that they were going through a process of redeployment with colleagues in accordance with its policy, and would not have final numbers for job reductions until that process was complete.