Scottish Rural Action is undertaking research to find out what the impacts will be on our rural communities and their high streets. Some suggest it may be a good thing as it will free up shop units for other types of businesses, whilst others argue it will drive away business. SRA expect their survey to show complex results with a range of impacts.
Scottish Rural Action will take full range of views collected to an evidence session at Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster on 17 January 2018, so it is important they are able to fully represent rural Scotland.
SRA know anecdotally impacts of these planned branch closures will hit rural communities the hardest, and it will be the elderly and those who rely on public transport that will be disproportionately affected. Island communities and villages in the Highlands and Borders may have to do round trips of several hours to do their cash banking. They know that many rural communities do not have reliable high speed broadband or mobile signal to use the digital solutions on offer for a limited number of services.
Take the survey here