THE only bank in Hamlet Court Road is set to close – to the dismay of the Westcliff street’s traders.

HSBC is closing its branch there on May 1, blaming decreasing custom for the decision.

The bank is making arrangements to allow nonbusiness customers to do everyday personal banking at the local post office..

However, the closure will mean there is no longer a bank cash machine in the shopping street.

Stuart Brewer, a butcher at one local shop, Mertens Meats, said his customers regularly used the HSBC cashpoint because the shop did not accept cards.

He added: “We normally direct people to HSBC, so with it closing, it’s really going to affect us, as it’s the last bank in Hamlet Court Road.”

The closure will leave just one cash machine in the whole street, at Sainsbury’s.

Nigel Havens, managing director of Havens department store, said the closure would hit trade for all the shops.

Mr Havens said: “The closing of services such as banks is one of the main issues in the slump in the high street. If we look back ten years, we had every major bank and building society in Hamlet Court Road. When you have a bank, not only do you have the staff, who will be shopping in the street, but you as its customers, too.

“It undermines the number of customers coming to the whole area and changes the face of the street, if there are no financial services.

“Banks do not give a service any more. I understand the change in the way people do things. All of us are all to blame.

“None of us visits the bank as much as we used to, but there are still occasions when you need to go in to them. Without them, it undermines the whole street.”

HSBC said it was closing the branch because customers were increasingly banking by phone or the internet resulting in a 40 per cent reduction in customers visiting the bank over the last four years.

A spokesman said: “It is never a decision we take lightly, but on occasions, this has meant we have needed to close a branch.

Our Westcliff branch is a case in point.

“Decisions such as this are never easy, but we have worked with the small number of customers who use the branch to help them reorganise their finances ahead of the closure.

“All our personal customers have access to their accounts, to withdraw and pay in cash, via any UK post office.

“They can use the Westcliff post office, or other banking facilities in the town, including a number of fee-free cash machines in the area.”

The three members of staff at the branch will be moved to other branches when the bank closes.

HSBC’S Hamlet Court Road branch will be the third bank branch to close in south Essex since October, with the big banks reporting a decline in customers coming through their doors.

Days before the HSBC Hamlet Court Road closure news, NatWest announced its branch in Rayleigh Road, Eastwood, would close in March. This prompted traders in Eastwood to launch a petition against the closure. So far 200 people have signed in support of the branch and its three staff.

NatWest says a 19 per cent reduction in custom at the branch is behind the closure.

In Benfleet, residents waged a lengthy, but fruitless campaign to save a Barclays branch at Tarpots.

They were backed by a petition, signed by 1,400 residents and traders and by senior Castle Point councillors, but Barclays refused to change its mind.

AS local branches of the big banks face closure, the customerfriendly Metro Bank is defying the trend and opening up locally.

The bank was started in March 2010 in response to Business Secretary Vince Cable’s call for greater competition in retail banking and is becoming more common in high streets.

It now has branches in Basildon, Chelmsford and Romford, with others set to follow in Southend, Colchester, Braintree and Clacton. Metro’s branches open outside normal banking hours, seven days a week, 362 days a year and even welcome customers’ dogs.

It offers online banking, but maintains customers still need a building to visit, even if it is only occasionally.

Kevin Walker, regional director said: “We are a community bank and our branches is run by a local bank manager, who works closely with the community.”