POST Offices in some of Tynedale’s rural communities are facing the threat of closure when a vital banking service is removed.

Barclays Bank, which recently closed branches in Bellingham, Ponteland and Corbridge, has said its customers won’t be able to use the Post Office to withdraw money from January next year.

Some business owners throughout the district now fear the removal of the service will starve rural communities of the vital services they rely on.

Kate Jameson, postmistress at Bellingham Post Office, has launched a petition urging Barclays to reverse its decision which has been signed by more than 300 people.

“I may not be able to afford to keep the shop open if this service is taken away,” she said. “The fewer people that come into the shop the less money we make.

“It’s not just the people in the village that come here, it’s people from the whole of the North Tyne and Redesdale, and the surrounding areas.

“When Barclays shut in 2017, a lot of customers came to us. A lot of pensioners use the service because they cannot go anywhere else, and we are here to help them.”

Ponteland also lost its Barclays branch earlier this year, with only two banks now left in the town.

Norma Edminson, who manages the Post Office on Merton Road, said the plans were “another nail in the coffin” for the services offered by her business.

She said: “It’s a disgrace, it’s always rural communities who are affected.

“It’s less than a year since Barclays said to me ‘don’t worry about the bank closure as the customers will use your service’.

“Removing the cash withdrawal service will hit us very badly. It’s very bad for our business and means it’s another service we cannot provide.”

In Corbridge, county councillor Nick Oliver has been campaigning for a 24-hour cash point after Lloyds and Barclays left the village in 2017.

Coun. Oliver said: “Removing the Post Office service will affect a lot of people here. We’ve been trying to get a Barclays cash point for a while but it’s not been possible. However, we’re actively looking for possible locations.”

Hexham’s MP Guy Opperman called on Barclays executives to reverse their decision in a meeting at Westminster on Tuesday.

He added: “I am calling on the bank to reverse its plan for the sake of local people who still rely heavily on cash. This will hit rural communities very hard and they need to rethink.”

But, so far, Barclays has refused to back down on its plan and said over the counter cash withdrawals would end in January 2020, while cash withdrawal by cheque would be available by arrangement.

Despite this, it said it remains committed to the Post Office framework and has increased its funding for the Post Office to enable customers to pay in cash and cheques, and check balances.