IVYBRIDGE town centre is to lose a second bank in the coming months, with the announcement by Barclays that its Fore Street branch will close in November.

Natwest also announced earlier this year that its branch, at 62 Fore Street, will close on September 28.

Barclays said it had not taken the ‘difficult decision’ lightly, and had made it in response to ‘changing customer behaviour’ and the increasing use of telephone and online banking.

The closure will mean the town will also lose one of its few cash point machines.

Mayor of Ivybridge Cllr David Gray-Taylor said: ‘I think everyone’s been on to them to reconsider. They don’t seem to have taken into account all the new houses that will soon be built, bringing people into the town.

‘We won’t give it up without a fight.’

Chair of the Ivybridge Chamber of Commerce Margaret Punchard called the news ‘a shock’, and said the fact two banks would soon be gone from Ivybridge was ‘not good for the town’.

She added: ‘I think they’re being shortsighted in closing branches now, when new houses are being built.

‘If we’ve only got one bank, how will all these people be serviced?

‘It will also mean there’ll be two big buildings that will be empty now, and it will be interesting to see what goes in.’

For more on this story, see this week’s Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette