Changes ahead at Clarkston, Barrhead and Thornliebank TSB branches

The changes, which will come into force from the end of July this year, will see :

• Barrhead open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9.30am-4.30pm.

• Clarkston – open Tuesday and Friday, 9.30am-4.30pm.

• Thornliebank – open on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9.30am-4.30pm.

According to TSB, in all of these three cases, footfall at the branches over the past year has dropped by over 10 per cent, and 80 per cent of the customers who use these branches actually use other TSB branches, online, mobile or telephone banking for their day-to-day banking services.

A TSB spokesman said: “Customers are changing the way they interact with us and over the past few years we have seen the usage of branches continue to fall, with many customers increasingly using alternative TSB branches, online, mobile or telephone banking to access TSB banking services.

“These changes mean that we have taken the difficult decision to reduce the opening hours of some of our branches to keep them commercially viable.

“Our principle aim is to try and stay within these local communities – by reducing hours in some locations it allows us to do this.

“Our branch partners are working with our customers to support them as we make these changes and we can confirm there will be no job losses.”

Hisashi Kuboyama, FSB’s development manager, said: “TSB is reducing opening hours in branches up and down Scotland.

“We fear that this might be eventually leading to the bank closing its doors for good.

“It will make it more difficult to run a business, especially if you operate in our cash-dependent retail and hospitality industries.

“UK Ministers must stop sitting on their hands when it comes to bank branch closures and uncertainty over our ATM network.

“We need to see policymakers look at the impact of these sorts of closures on the economic health of local communities.”