Call for cash machines in Rhiwbina

Calls have been made to reintroduce a cash machine in Rhiwbina as the area’s elderly residents and finances suffer.

Up until January 2010 the area was served by a cash machine outside an HSBC bank in the village’s centre but when the branch closed, despite protesting from residents, the nearest outlet became one at the Morrisons supermarket store a mile away.

And with 13.73 per cent of Rhiwbina’s residents 75-years-old and over, the highest in Cardiff, the elderly struggle t0 get to far away machines.

Now, two years on from the closure, a concerted effort is being made to force action and boost the village’s finances in introducing a new service.

A worried Mary Clarke, of Pen-Y-Dre, 75, said: “Most of the older people who use the bank will start keeping a bit extra money at home and that’s not a good thing. It’s another nail in the coffin of the village. If people go to the Whitchurch branch, they are likely to stop there and do the rest of their shopping.”

Prospective Conservative candidate for the area, John Lancaster, has made the issue one of his priorities if he is elected in May’s local elections.

He said: “It is a shame that the area lost such a facility when the previous bank shut down. We feel that the reintroduction of a cash machine would be a realistic and achievable way of encouraging trade in the area.”

Independent councillor Jayne Cowan has said there are plans to replace the cash machine, although it is now out of her hands.

She said: “Obviously this is an important issue which has been the subject of many of resident complaints to us. But we are talking to the NatWest branch in the village to provide a cash machine service.

"We understand planning permission has been granted but they are just waiting for the funds. We don’t know in what timescale that will arrive.”