THE last bank standing in Bewdley is set to close its doors in the new year leaving town centre customers with no bank and just one cash machine between them.

Today (Wednesday), the HSBC, in Load Street, sent letters out to its customers and put a sign up in its window announcing the branch would be closing from 3.30pm on January 22 and personal banking customers were to either use the Post Office or go to another nearby branch, the closest being Kidderminster or Stourport.

But, Sara Hayden, of Hayden Estates, also in Load Street, said this would not be good enough for business customers as they could not bank at the Post Office, and is one of a group of businesses, which includes Bewdley Blooms, that have set up a petition to "save Bewdley" as the bank closure would be a second unacceptable closure in the town with the fire station also potentially going.

She said: "As quite a few of the businesses in Bewdley bank with HSBC we will be unable to just pop down the road to the bank to get change.

"The older generation will not be able to go into the bank and pay in and draw out money. How are they expecting a small town like Bewdley to be able to cope without a bank? This will also remove two cash machines from the town centre therefore only having one cash machine at Tesco, which is very often out of use.

"Are they trying to completely kill the town?

"They don't think about the bigger picture. They are about to get rid of the fire station and now the only bank that's left here."

Ms Hayden added that the people in Bewdley who use the banking services would have been open to HSBC 'scaling down' by potentially reducing its opening hours, making the branch smaller, moving the branch to a smaller unit in the town, but she said closing it completely was the wrong decision.

Councillor Nigel Knowles, Wyre Forest Labour group leader and resident of Bewdley, is also against the closure of the town's last surviving bank.

He said: "This is another loss of a service for the people of Bewdley and it's not really good enough as we already lost the Barclays bank."

Barclays closed in 2014, however, the building is still lying unused as the business has a lease until 2020 and many fear this will be the same case if HSBC closes.

When contacted, a spokesman for HSBC said the branch would be closing because of a drop in its use, but that the decision had not been an easy one to make.

He said: "We are closing the Bewdley branch on January 22 due to a significant fall in its use. We never take the decision to close a branch lightly, and we understand it's unsettling for the local community.

"We are working with customers who use the branch to help them understand their options. These include being able to use the Bewdley post office to check their balance and withdraw and pay in cash and cheques to their personal HSBC account, in addition to having access to a number of fee-free cash machines in the local area. Customers can also use other HSBC branches."

To sign the petition set up by Bewdley businesses to save the bank and fire station, visit http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savebewdleybank.

Bewdley Town Council are considering the closure as an emergency item at the full council meeting on Monday (November 2) at 7.30pm.