Another step has been taken in the closure of a city centre bank branch. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branch on South Parade, Nottingham city centre, will soon close, with a planning application recently approved to allow the removal of the ATM and furniture from the building.
The closure is part of a larger move, with it being announced on February 14 that 32 branches of NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland would close, including branches in Nottingham city centre, Bulwell and Hucknall. The planning application shows the branch's external ATM will be removed after the branch is shut.
All external and internal marketing decoration will now be taken out, with furniture also being removed from the bank. The NatWest Group, which runs both Natwest and RBS, said the move was a result in a drop in the use of branches since the Covid pandemic began.
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In 2018 it was announced by RBS that their Mapperley, Long Eaton and Mansfield branches were to close under nationwide plans to shut 162 banks, resulting in 792 job losses. And the more recent decision to close NatWest in Bulwell has caused fears the town would soon 'turn into nothing'.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which are rounded to the nearest five, the number of banks in Nottingham halved between 2010 and 2021. It fell from 70 in 2010 to 35 last year in 2021.
Across Nottinghamshire, it was a similar story as more than 100 branches were open across the county in 2010 and now just 60 remain. The planning application was granted approval on April 19 by Nottingham City Council.
