IN a blow to Wickford High Street, one of its national brands has announced it is closing its local branch.

On a day when it announced 111 branch closures across the country, Santander has confirmed the axe will fall on its bank branch at 18A High Street on 8 July.

A statement from the Spanish-based banking giant, which since 2004 has expanded hugely into the UK market, taking over Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford and Bingley banks, said it would be closing the branches by the end of August 2021 in response to "the ongoing shift by customers towards mobile and online banking, a long-term trend which has been accelerated by the pandemic."

The nearest branch to Wickford will be at 61 High Street, Rayleigh. All Santander current and business account holders can also bank at Post Office branches.

Adam Bishop, Head of Branches, said: "Branch usage by customers has fallen considerably over recent years so we have made the difficult decision to consolidate our presence in areas where we have multiple branches relatively close together. The majority of the closing branches are within three miles of another branch and the furthest is five miles away.

"We will provide every support to customers of closing branches to find alternative ways to bank with us that best suit their individual needs. We are also working alongside our unions to support colleagues through these changes and to find alternative roles for those impacted wherever possible.

"We continue to believe that branches have an important role to play and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future.

"We are committed to supporting our customers and responding to changes in the way customers want to access services."