ANOTHER banking facility is to be lost in Minehead with the closure in the New Year of the town’s Yorkshire Building Society branch.

Staff and customers of the building society have been told the branch, in The Avenue, will close on January 23.

It currently operates as an agency inside the premises of foreign currency exchange business Express Euro.

The society, which is more than 140 years old, is a mutual organisation owned by its members and not shareholders, meaning it can reinvest profits to deliver its social purpose.

It aims to deliver real help and value to its customers by ‘providing the financial tools and support to enable them to achieve the things in life that matter to them most’.

The society said its branch closures were due to a shift in customer behaviour to online and digital banking, resulting in fewer people actually using physical branches.

Despite announcing the Minehead closure the society said it was ‘still fully committed to having branches and agencies across the UK’.

It said the nearly 1,000 Minehead customers could instead visit its next nearest branches in Taunton and Tiverton, or they could manage their account online or use telephone banking.

A spokesperson said: “As a mutual organisation, we always think carefully about how we invest our members’ money.

“We have decided to close this agency after a careful review of how many members use it.”

The spokesperson said in the past 12 months the Minehead branch had 936 active members, which was nearly half the average of other branches and agencies across the countrty.

Only 26 members made a monthly transaction in Minehead, and just 133 had made a transaction in six of the past 12 months.

Of the members with an open account, nearly half had not used the branch in the previous year.

The spokesperson said the society had been in touch with all members who still had an open account at the agency, those lived within 20 miles of Minehead and made a transaction in the past 12 months, and West Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour.

They said: “We will contact members who we know may need extra support to manage their accounts.

“Our staff will also have extra training to help members through this change.

“In Minehead, there are other companies which let their customers withdraw cash.”

The spokesperson said anybody who was worried about how to manage their account should call the branch on 01643 706920.

Minehead will be left with banking services in the TSB, NatWest, and Santander Banks, while the facilities in the town’s Post Office will be lost when a McCarthy Stone retirements flats development goes ahead.

The town has not had a Lloyds Bank since it became the TSB in 2013, while Barclays closed in 2019, and HSBC in 2023.

Community banking hubs run by Cash Access UK and financed by all of the major banking companies have replaced high street banking in many towns once they lose their last remaining bank.