GORSEINON: Banking hub to open at former High Street vintage shop in September

Gorseinon’s new banking hub will open in September at 20 High Street, the former Kirstie’s Vintage Emporium, weeks before the town’s last bank branch closes.

Gorseinon Town Council announced the location this week, describing the unit between the taxi rank and Noah’s Ark daycare, opposite Home Bargains, as a temporary home while a permanent base is confirmed.

The hub will open 9am to 5pm on weekdays, with a counter run by Post Office staff where customers of any bank can withdraw and deposit cash, pay bills and carry out everyday transactions.

A community banker from a different bank will be on site each day, according to the rota shared in the announcements: Barclays on Mondays, NatWest on Tuesdays, Lloyds on Wednesdays, Halifax on Thursdays and HSBC on Fridays. The town council notes the rota is subject to change.

Mike Hedges MS (Welsh Labour, Gŵyr Abertawe) shared the same details, with the exact opening date still to be confirmed.

The timing matters. Lloyds closes its branch at 113 High Street on 12 October, one of 49 closures across the UK announced last September, meaning the hub is due to arrive about a month before the counter shuts.

That closure will leave Principality Building Society as the only remaining provider in the town.

Confirmed last September, open before the last counter shuts

The hub was confirmed for Gorseinon last September, when LINK, the UK’s cash access network, recommended the town as one of 11 communities to get one.

Chris Ashton, LINK’s chief commercial officer, said at the time that while more people were switching to digital banking, “we know that many people still rely on and choose to use cash”.

Gorseinon has been losing its banks for years. Barclays shut its branch in February 2022, saying only 83 customers used it exclusively, and HSBC closed its Alexandra Road branch in June 2021.

The hub, delivered by Cash Access UK, will be the second in Swansea, joining Morriston, while Mumbles opened its own hub in May at Castleton Walk Arcade.

Alongside the Post Office counter, the hub will have private space where customers can meet the community banker from their own bank to deal with more complex matters, from payments and transfers to help using online banking.

The search for a permanent Gorseinon base continues, with the town council saying the High Street unit is the hub’s home while that is worked out.

An exact go-live date has yet to be announced.