More than 1,000 angry residents in Churchdown have signed a petition to keep their bank open.
The HSBC branch is due to close on June 20 and campaigners yesterday handed in the petition.
Churchdown Parish Council chairman Pearl Stokes, who has lived in the area since 1966, said: “Shops, small businesses, schools and voluntary groups all use the bank on a regular basis.
I have witnessed lots of people go in because it is safe with easy parking outside. If they have to go into Gloucester, Cheltenham or Bath Road they have the added expense of petrol, parking or bus fares.
If people are carrying money in heavy bags it makes it obvious what they are carrying. Some people will have to leave their place of work in Churchdown to travel to another branch.
The service that customers receive at the HSBC bank in Churchdown is excellent with helpful and friendly staff.
A spokesman for HSBC said:
Our branches are a very important way for our customers to bank with us and we have spent more than £100million in recent years upgrading and improving them. However, we need to ensure our branches are in the right locations for our customers and, on occasions, this means we need to close a branch where customer footfall has fallen dramatically or there has been a shift in customer shopping patterns.
Our branch in Churchdown is a case in point. Customer usage of the branch has fallen very significantly over the past few years. Customers habits are changing – they are now increasingly using branches where they work or they are using the 24-hour convenience of internet or telephone banking.
Our network has to be fit for purpose and we have to ensure that our branches are located in areas where they are used.
Decisions like this are never easy but we are working with the small number of customers who use the branch to help them reorganise their finances ahead of the planned closure on June 20, 2014.
Customers will have access to their accounts, to withdraw and pay in cash at any UK post office and residents of Churchdown have access to a fee-free ATM within the immediate area. Members of staff who man the branch will transfer to our other HSBC branches in the area.