This month has seen more bad news for our high streets and local retail centres. The Bank of Scotland branch at 1 Liberton Drive closed on 31^st March and the Santander on Morningside Road which will close on 29^th July.

I continue to oppose such closures with local people. Indeed, I am supportive of legislation at a national level which would protect local banking services in law, via the Post Office network.

Our town centres and highstreets were struggling before Covid but the virus is helping turbo charge the process of online shopping and declining footfall. We need a comprehensive action plan for our highstreets which looks at business rates, rents and taxation for online goods and services.

More information on the Bank of Scotland closure is here and the letter from Santander is below.