So a new banking hub has been proposed for the town, will it be of any real benefit to any of the businesses or is Sidmouth now considered a lost cause?

No sooner has the last bank in town announced it’s retiring from the high street premises it has occupied for so many years, we have a new Banking Hub thrown into the mix, as has been referred to as the Bank of Sidmouth, will it work, and how will it affect those businesses that occupy the town?

It is so often the case that a business owner will only consider how it affects them and if it doesn’t they are not to bothered, but having no bank in the town could have wider more long term implications for many. While we consider that in the last few years we have lost all the banks and Building Societies, M and Co have said goodbye to the Edinburgh Woollen Mill failed as covid hit (although this has now reopened in one of the former Bank Buildings) the closure of the Sidholme Hotel and now the Royal York and Faulkner Hotel is now up for sale, not to mention those smaller companies that have fallen by the wayside, so anyone with a modicum of sense can see that the harsh reality is that visitor numbers are down trade isn’t as good, despite busy days here and there. So, on the scale of things is a banking hub going to put the town back on an even keel? I somehow doubt it.

Those who run a business in the town and live here, whilst able to use the Post Office, are going to have to venture a little further out for their banking needs and this could present many problems and take valuable time from their day, but surely the crucial factor is that there business needs an increase in turnover far more than a bank in the High Street, as humans we learn to adapt, you only have to look at Covid to see that, so before we jump for joy at seeing a modified car smothered in promotional decals trundling up and down the streets surely a focus on what really matters is more important?