ANGRY Spearwood residents have launched a campaign to stop the closure of the suburb’s last bank branch, saying it will leave elderly customers and local businesses struggling to access cash.

The Commonwealth Bank branch at Phoenix Shopping Centre will close on Friday, July 27, with the bank saying customers can instead use larger branches at Success and Fremantle, as well as Australia Post Bank@Post services.

But residents say the decision ignores the needs of a community that still relies on face-to-face banking.

Vicki Harris started campaigning after a conversation with an elderly gentleman who was reading a notice on the branch’s front door while she was using the ATM last Friday.

It left her determined to act.

“I was taking money out of the ATM, and he said to me, ‘What am I gonna do?’ And it really got to me,” she said.

Back home, she got further evidence on the wider impact on the community.

“My five-year-old and eight-year-old grandson said to me, ‘Ama, what are we going to do? We can’t go to the bank and put our money in.’”

She began contacting politicians but didn’t have many compliments about their response, saying they “need to find a set of balls”, until local councillor Phoebe Corke picked up the phone and offered to help with the campaign.

Ms Harris also started contacting local groups such as the Cockburn Seniors Club.

“I just told them what was happening, they didn’t know.”

Ms Harris said she believed the closure would particularly affect older residents who still use passbooks and cash.

“These aged people around here, they’ve still got passport books. And they line up on a Thursday getting their money out.

“Come on, how can they walk so far in Success and Fremantle? You have to pay for parking, you know it’s not fair.”

Cockburn Seniors Club member Maureen Wilkins said the decision had made her angry because of the impact on older customers.

“Makes me angry because there’s so many senior citizens, a lot older than me,” she said.

“You see them coming into this bank with their little passbooks on a weekly or fortnightly endeavour to get out their pension money or to get out their budget money, and this bank is so busy that they stand in the queue sometimes for up to 30, 35 minutes waiting to get in.”

Scams

Ms Wilkins, who has lived in the area for about 45 years and banked with Commonwealth Bank all her life, said many customers would struggle to travel elsewhere.

“Those same people who don’t have a credit card, they’re saying they have to travel all the way out to Cockburn to be able to get out their money.”

Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett withdrew his money from the branch – his local – in protest at the decision, which he heard about when the branch’s manager gave him a “courtesy call”.

Mr Howlett said he was surprised by the bank’s claim that customer numbers did not justify keeping the branch open.

“I just said, ‘well, that’s very strange, because I’ve been here recently with my wife, probably four or five times, and I had to walk out because I didn’t have time to stand around waiting. You’re telling me that there’s no customers, you’ve got to be joking.”

Mr Howlett said the City had written to Commonwealth Bank opposing the closure.

“It’s well used by the community.”

“We’ve lost all the banks in Spearwood. At Phoenix, all the banks are gone, every single one.”

Local business operators say the closure will also create problems.

Phoenix Lottery store manager Tenae Murphy said her business had already been forced to change banks multiple times after other branches closed.

“We have already had to change banks three times for our change. We’ve gone from ANZ Bank to Bankwest; both branches closed in Spearwood.”

“This is our last branch in Spearwood to get change for our store. It’s a safety hazard, carrying the change so far.”

Cockburn councillor Phoebe Corke said she was concerned about the impact on vulnerable customers.

“For all of us, this is the branch we use if we need a bank, and it is always absolutely chockers.

“What concerns me about it the most is that if you do use this bank, you can see that the majority of the clientele are older.

“They are vulnerable, they are the population who are most at risk of scams, and this is how they run their finances.”

Commonwealth Bank area manager WA Central South Michelle Johns said the bank remained committed to its branch network and had invested millions of dollars into nearby locations.

“Our Success and Fremantle branches are popular banking centres for the local community, and as a result we’ve recently made a multi-million dollar investment to expand our services for customers in the area.”

The bank said it was working with the branch to support staff relocations to nearby branches or where there were comparable roles.

by STEVE GRANT