Branch to close

4:00pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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BROMYARD town centre is to lose another business when Halifax closes its Broad Street branch on May 23.

Although it receives a monthly payment from the building society, the branch - effectively run as a franchise by Compass Financial Services - has been running at a loss for three years.

Finance director Mark Rawlings said the branch handled 100 transactions a day, for which it gets a fee, but those were not enough to meet running costs. Mr Rawlings said the decision was made with regret.

"We've made a huge effort to keep it open and looked at cutting costs wherever we possibly can but these losses have become unmanageable," he said.

"As we cannot continue to sustain these losses indefinitely, we spoke to Halifax and were told they were not able to help."

Halifax customers will now have to travel to Hereford, Leominster or Malvern.

The closure comes after Peter Briggs and Olive's Wool Shop closed in the town.