This petition was submitted during the 2017–2019 Conservative government

Rejected petition NatWest must not shut its branch in Okehampton as it serves pensioners in area.

Okehampton has a large number of pensioners who are infirm and cannot use online banking. The town has small businesses who depend on NatWest as one bank has already closed and another has reduced its hours. It will be most distressing to see NatWest close we are served by lovely, excellent staff.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.

The decision to close branches is a commercial and operational decision for a bank, and not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

You may be interested to know that the House of Commons debated the general issue of bank branch closures in June 2016. You can read the debate here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-06-30/debates/A32A8165-29DE-4FE1-A93F-E88310B81E5C/BankBranchClosures

You can find out more about the recent announcements about branch closures and the banking industry's response in this House of Commons Library briefing paper: https://researchbriefings.intranet.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN00385

You could start a new petition asking the House of Commons to debate the issue of local bank branch closures again, if that's what you want to happen.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.