The Executive Director of the North Yorkshire County Council approved a series of measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of bank branch closures on local businesses and rural communities.

This step will allow 72 council members to determine where additional ATMs can be useful to residents and to identify possible locations for them, such as buildings owned by councils.

The action followed a lengthy investigation by the committee of the Corporate and Partnership Oversight Board on the problems of access to banking services faced by rural residents.

Chairman of the control committee, adviser Derek Bastiman said that during the investigation it turned out that an increasing number of North Yorkshire residents are forced to travel considerable distances to receive cash, especially in rural areas. Some people have traveled more than 30 miles to receive cash.

Derek Bastiman also said that banks do not seem to show corporate responsibility. “They turned away from many rural problems. They make all these big noises about what they will do with the leaders of the farm councils, but they forget people on the other end of the scale who live in the village and have no access to Internet banking or a vehicle to get to the ATM . This is a real problem, and I don’t think that banks have taken full responsibility. ”