A TOP Oldham opposition councillor who represents Shaw and Crompton has voiced dismay at the announced closure of the local Barclays Bank branch.

The Shaw branch in Market Street will close on September 18 as part of a wide-ranging restructure of the group, the bank has said.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Cllr Chris Gloster said: “The closure of Barclays will effectively leaves us with only one mainstream bank in Shaw and Crompton.

“Barclays is the only bank in Shaw now open on market day and as such, with the exception of The Post Office, people will be unable to perform any banking functions when Barclays closes.

Cllr Gloster added: “I suppose we have to count our blessings that the Royal Bank of Scotland branch in Shaw avoided the recently announced wave of closures announced by themselves although the branch has only been opening on Monday, Tuesday and Friday for the last 12 months.

“Clearly there is an opportunity for RBS to take on more customers from Shaw and Crompton as they now have the monopoly and I have written to the chief executive of RBS suggesting that they return to five day banking for this very reason. I await their response.”