BUSINESS owners across South Cumbria said they would be more trusting of a new plastic £50 note despite disliking the new polymer material.

Following in the footsteps of the £5 and £10 notes the Bank of England plans to continue move to new plastic notes in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly.

Sam Clee, of The Fourpence Cafe and Shop, Ulverston said: “I wouldn’t like to give change for two coffees for one. The plastic notes don’t do what they’re supposed to, you can shrink them, the colour comes out in the wash and when you open your wallet they all spring out. In general people don’t really like them.”

When asked if they take the current £50 notes, he said: “Yeah we take them but we have to be very wary about who we take them off.”

It is yet to be decided which famous face will appear on the new note.

Mike Stevenson, of The Last Resort cafe, Barrow said: “We do usually take them even though we don’t usually see them. If they’re changing the design then we’ll have to be more vigilant. But it’ll make them harder to counterfeit I suppose. People are more likely to pay with their phone or by contactless these days.”

The change is set to be the second set of new £50 notes released in less than 10 years, with the current £50’s only having been put into circulation in 2011.

One of the existing issues for many people is not being able to recognise a fake £50 note, which leads to a large amount of forgeries being in circulation without most people even realising.

Some vegan and religious groups have spoken out in the wake of the announcement, after the plastic £5 and £10 notes were shown to contain animal fat shortly after their introduction in 2016.

The plastic bank notes were introduced in 2016 due to their strength versus paper notes, as well as being harder to fake and a smaller impact on the environment in the long run.