Further blow for Buxton as Santander announce closure of town's branch

The Spring Gardens branch is one of 140 nationally that are being closed - with 1,270 members of staff affected.

The company said the closures were in response to changes in how customers are choosing to carry out their banking and that they would seek to find alternative roles for staff. Santander said it expected to be able to redeploy around a third of those affected.

The Buxton branch will close on June 27. It is a further blow for the town, following on from the news that the Marks and Spencer store is proposed for closure, with the town's H Samuel store also closing on February 2.

Susan Allen, Head of Retail and Business Banking at Santander, said: "The way our customers are choosing to bank with us has changed dramatically in recent years, with more and more customers using online and mobile channels. As a result, we have had to take some very difficult decisions over our less visited branches, and those where we have other branches in close proximity.

"We will support 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 a vital role to play and we will be refurbishing 100 of our branches over the next two years. We are confident that following these changes we will have the right branch network to serve our customers’ changing needs, and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future."

Santander said their future branch network will be made up of a combination of larger branches offering improved community facilities to support local businesses and customers, and smaller branches using the latest technology to offer customers more convenient access to banking services.

All Santander current and business account holders can bank using the Post Office.

The number of transactions carried out via Santander branches has fallen by 23% over the past three years, while transactions via digital channels have grown by 99% over the same period, the company said.