Elderly Residents Fearful as Last Bank Branch in Lochgilphead Closes

When 84-year-old Maggie Dodd discovered that the last remaining bank in her town was closing, she began to panic.

"I was distraught," she says.

"I mean I couldn't sleep that first night when I realised. I thought what am I going to do?"

Maggie has been a customer at the Bank of Scotland in Lochgilphead since 1976.

Now her nearest branch is in Oban, almost an hour's drive away (or 37.2 miles away if you prefer) and she's worried about banking online.

"I'm frightened," she says.

"There's so much of this scamming business, and I'm always worried that I'll hit something and press the wrong thing."

That's why she has 'buddied up' with her 83-year-old friend Ina Callander to try banking at the local post office.

"I've been using the post office for years," Ina says.

"Maggie was really upset and I thought, why not help her? Because that's what friends are for."

Lloyds Banking Group, which owns the Bank of Scotland, say the branch at Lochgilphead is no longer viable as most of their customers prefer to bank online.

But BBC Your Voice was approached by residents in the town who are worried about the impact the closure will have on elderly and vulnerable people, as well as local businesses.

Karen McCurry, who runs the wellbeing centre Snowdrop Argyll, set up the buddy scheme used by Maggie and Ina.

She says: "I had people approaching me, telling me they weren't sleeping at night because the bank was going to close - and that's massive.

"We always try to think of solutions and how to make things easier for somebody.

"We can't change what's happening outside a lot of the time, but we can help somebody feel a bit better about it, a bit more confident."

Adriano Pia, who runs the Argyll Café, says banks are needed because bank cards and cash machines aren't always reliable.

"Even today we had two people whose cards aren't working," he says.

"I've had times where I've had to tell people just to take it, so they don't go hungry because they're stuck," he says.

A few doors along at the Community Shop, manager Scott McBride is worried about the impact the closure will have on the charity's insurance if they are not able to deposit their takings at the bank every day.

"We either extend our insurance, and that comes at a cost, which ultimately comes with a risk as well, because we're then potentially holding more cash on-site," he says.

Lochgilphead isn't the only place in Scotland affected by bank closures.

Figures from the consumer watchdog Which? reveal 742 bank branches have closed across the country since 2015.

The Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency has seen the most closures, with 30 banks shutting their doors in a decade.

In Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber, 25 bank branches have closed.

Argyll and Bute Council said their bid for a Banking Hub in Lochgilphead, where banks share facilities to provide to face-to-face services, was rejected.

Link, the body which assesses cash access, said the area was already well served with free-to-use ATMs and the local post office.

But Anna Dudziak, the sub-postmaster in Lochgilphead, says she can't offer as many transactions as a bank.

"The problem is they're telling people to go to the post office, saying 'they can do it for you'.

"But at the same time, they set up limits for cash withdrawals, for cash deposits, for cheque deposits that we can't do for people.

"Most people understand, but every day we have people really, really angry and they blame the post office."

Dougie Philand, the Provost of Argyll, said he hopes Link will reconsider its decision on cash machines.

"We, myself and the community council, will keep an eye on the difficulties that people are experiencing and at least we can give the evidence and be able to say 'look, we do need a banking hub here'."

"We're giving our customers the flexibility to bank wherever and whenever they need us."

The UK government is carrying out a review into access to face-to-face banking, which is due to report in October.