The facility is open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday (including lunch times) and the community banking representation rota is as follows:
- MONDAY: Barclays
- TUESDAY: Lloyds
- WEDNESDAY: Natwest
- THURSDAY: HSBC
- FRIDAY: Halifax
This essential community facility has opened as an interim Banking Hub at the 10 High Street Post Office, until such time as permanent premises in the town centre have been secured.
Like a traditional banking branch, Banking Hubs are centrally located spaces with professional, face to face counter services provided by the major high street bank. The Town Council, as the local lead in its delivery, was instrumental in the campaign to establish a Banking Hub in Hailsham over the past few years, following the recent closure of local bank branches.
The hub is being delivered by Cash Access UK, and any customer can find their nearest free to use cash access point (including ATMs, Post Offices and Banking Hubs) via the LINK Cash Locator App and website: https://www.link.co.uk/cash-locator.
The Hailsham Banking Hub is the first of its kind to open in East Sussex, bringing the total number of hubs open across the country to around 130.
Residents, businesses and community organisations are encouraged to use the interim Banking Hub in the same way as their own bank, including services such as cash withdrawals, deposits, opening an account, paying in cheques and financial advice.
The new hub complements existing banking services for individuals and businesses already provided in-branch at the High Street Post Office, which include normal bank transactions and business deposits.
Operating from the town centre Post Office, which the Town Council runs and operates as franchisee, the opening of the Hailsham Banking Hub was excellent news for the town and a welcome relief to residents and local businesses.
"We are delighted that an interim Banking Hub has now been established in Hailsham, which will complement the provision of our local post office," said Cllr Mary Laxton, Chair of the Post Office Sub-Committee. "The fact that such an essential service is now being delivered locally is excellent news for many residents and has already proved to be highly beneficial to our community."
"Since June 2015, around 6,000 bank branches have closed throughout the UK and many banks tell us that changes in customer behaviour have been the driving force and principal reason for this."
"An increasing number of people bank online and consequently make far fewer visits to branches. Whilst we fully understand the considerable uptake in the use of online banking in recent years, there are still people, particularly the elderly, who like to visit their branches and bank in person."
"This is where the Hailsham Banking Hub can help considerably. Add to that the town centre Post Office, where the Banking Hub will be housed until such time as permanent premises are found."
Cllr Laxton added: "The Town Council's Post Office Sub-Committee has worked hard to deliver banking services that are accessible to individual and business banking customers. Our commitment to delivering a Banking Hub in Hailsham means that we can help to re-establish complete banking services in the town whilst we work with Cash Access UK to secure permanent premises."
"It has been an arduous journey to get to this point, but we now have an outcome that makes it all worthwhile for Hailsham."
The Hailsham town centre Post Office's opening hours have recently changed and are as follows:
- Mondays to Fridays: 9am-5pm
- Saturdays: 9am-1pm