BARCLAYS will close one of its three banks in Herefordshire after usage fell by almost half in two years.

Barclays, which has shut its branches in Ross-on-Wye and Hay-on-Wye since 2018, said the bank in The Homend, Ledbury, would close on October 5.

The reasons for the closure, Barclays said, included the number of counter transactions falling over the past two years.

Weekly counter transactions for personal customers fell from 407 between April 2019 and March 2020 to 234 in the same period two years later – a fall of 43 per cent.

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It said there had also been a 36 per cent drop in weekly counter transactions for business and corporate customers.

Barclays also said customers using other ways to do their banking has risen by 12 per cent since

2016, and, in the past 12 months, 25 per cent of Ledbury's customers have been using nearby branches

The fourth reason Barclays gave for axing the branch was that it had identified that only 28 customers use the Ledbury bank exclusively for their banking.

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Barclays said customers would still be able to bank at branches more than 14 miles away in Hereford and Worcester, with Malvern's branch also shutting recently.

There are nearby cash machines at One Stop, in the Homend, which is also home to the town's post office, and the Co-op, in New Street.

There is also a post office in Bromsberrow Heath, with branches capable of dealing with certain transactions.

The closure will leave Herefordshire with just two Barclays banks, one in Hereford and one in Leominster, and Ledbury with only TSB.