A BANK has come under fire for its ill-timed decision to clear out the newly vacated building on what is Leyburn’s busiest day of the year.

A team of workmen moved into the town’s HSBC building on Friday June 16, the day it was closed down and started removing the fixtures and fittings, piling them up on the pavement outside whilst the Dales festival of food and drink was in full swing only 25 yards away in the Market Place.

Bystanders said visitors were constantly stopping them to ask directions and advice from the workers.

HSBC insisted the bank was being closed because of reduced footfall at regional branches with 93 per cent of contact now completed via the telephone, internet or smartphone, and the majority of cash withdrawals made via an ATM.

Customers in Leyburn have been asked to use the Post Office, or an ATM situated in the nearby Coop Store.

Chair of the Lower Wensleydale Business Network Richard Sanderson said: “It seems a bizarre decision to empty the bank branch on what is the probably the busiest weekend all year here in Leyburn.”

A campaign was launched to save the bank as the last remaining HSBC in Wensleydale, following the closure of branches in Hawes and Bedale, only the Richmond branch in neighbouring Swaledale still remains open.

But the latest closure went ahead despite a recent refurbishment and moves by local MP Rishi Sunak to save it. In August last year he received a written assurance Leyburn would not close, but it has.

Town Mayor Trixie Walker said many people are being badly affected by the closure of the bank . She said: “Closing HSBC will cause a huge problem for many local people and businesses. I was chatting with a business owner yesterday about how they have to order change in advance at the Post Office, which is difficult when they don’t know what they will need.”

Leyburn is one of 62 branches which have been closed by HSBC across the country over the past year, as part of huge cutbacks in bank properties. The bank says its a reflection of the change in the way banks are being used. The former bank branch is now due to be put on the market .