The decision to close four Yorkshire Bank branches in the Bradford area this year has been branded "terrible news" and a "blow" to the high street.

The doomed branches are in Queensbury, Ilkley, Heckmondwike and Yeadon.

The closures will take affect between July and September and Yorkshire Bank said it will try to find alternative roles for staff.

Yorkshire Bank is closing 26 branches nationally, including nine in Yorkshire, which it says are either unsustainable or operating in premises where the leases have lapsed.

Customers of the closing branches will be written to at least 12 weeks before the closing date with information about the nearest branches and cash machines. Yorkshire Bank account holders can also use Post Office counters for day-to-day banking.

Yorkshire Bank previously axed branches in Duckworth Lane, Bradford, and Main Street, Bingley, which were deemed unsustainable.

As part of the latest review the bank has pledged to refurbish its Broadway branch in Bradford city centre.

Yorkshire Bank is also extending Saturday branch opening hours and introducing weekend opening at an additional 25 branches, including Keighley, Cleckheaton and Pudsey.

Saturday opening hours are to be extended to 9.15am to 4pm, rather than closing at 1.15pm.

Yorkshire Bank said the 60 branches which will be open on Saturdays will create nearly 14,000 extra hours of weekend service for customers in England each year and nearly 6,000 in Yorkshire .

Yorkshire Bank is installing 100 additional cash machines across the UK where customers can also deposit money .

The bank has also announced that it will create a new banking service for tablets and smartphones this spring called “B”.

Steve Fletcher, head of customer banking networks, said: “I understand this will not be welcome news for those who use these particular branches.

"These are difficult decisions but ones we must face as we try to keep up with the pace of change in the way people want to bank. We have to balance our investment to ensure we support demand where it is greatest, across mobile, online and branch services.

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“Branches remain vitally important to us, and we continue to invest in them, the services they offer and when we offer them. I hope that the investment we’re making in the overall quality of our branch network, the big increase in Saturday opening and the availability of other ways to bank, like local Post Office counters, will minimise the effect of this announcement for customers.”

The branch review comes after Yorkshire Bank and its sister operation Clydesdale were floated as a UK company CYBG in February as former owner National Australia Bank pulled out of the UK market.

Norah McWilliam, of the Queensbury Community Heritage and Action Partnership, an organisation that banks with Yorkshire Bank in the village, said: “It is another hole in our High Street. It is going to be really inconvenient.”
Councillor Paul Cromie (Ind, Queensbury) said he had banked with Yorkshire Bank in Queensbury since the age of five, and added: “That is terrible news. When the NatWest closed, the high street went moribund.
“It is very, very disappointing and is another nail in the coffin of Queensbury high street. There is no other bank in Queensbury.” 


Councillor Mike Gibbons (Ilkley, Conservative), who is a Yorkshire Bank customer, said it appears that bonuses for bankers continued while customers suffered.
“It’s a loss to Yorkshire Bank customers who live in Ilkley and is another High Street facility that we are losing.
“A town the size of Ilkley deserves a Yorkshire Bank. We hold the Yorkshire anthem – how much more Yorkshire does Ilkley have to be for a Yorkshire Bank to be here?”


Ilkley independent Councillor Anne Hawkesworth said: “This is not good news at all. It is absolutely essential that places like Ilkley retain services.”
She urged the bank to reconsider but admitted that she does not expect them to perform a U-turn.
Councillor Colin Campbell, who represents Otley and Yeadon on Leeds Council, said: “It is a bit of a blow because it is the second one to close in Yeadon within a year after the closure of what was National Westminster.”
“This decision is short-sighted in my opinion.”
He added: “Yeadon High Street is doing well, with only one empty shop. It is bustling and will bounce back as the people of Yeadon have a positive attitude.”


Labour Councillor Steve Hull, who represents Heckmondwike on Kirklees Council, described the decision as “really bad news” and a “great shame”.
He has been a customer with Yorkshire Bank since he was a child and is planning to write a letter to Yorkshire Bank to ask for a re-think on the closure plans.