Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Copeland has hit out at Barclay’s bank for taking the decision to stop allowing its customers withdrawing cash from local Post Offices.

Tony Lywood said: "Our communities don’t deserve further downsizing to their services, whether from government or big business.” In a public letter to Barclay’s chair, Sir Ian Cheshire, Mr Lywood writes: “In the town of Millom there is a Post Office but no banks. The last Barclay’s bank, which was also the last bank in Millom, closed last year. Without this service Barclay’s customers will be forced to make the trip to Barrow at great personal inconvenience. I understand that you are a private corporation seeking to make profits. But big banks should not just be profit machines, they should also seek to serve the interests of the communities they operate in. Please reverse this decision.”

Concerned Millom town councillors and Tony Lywood outside Post Office in Millom, from left to right: Millom Town Cllrs Jane Micklethwaite and Tony Dixon, Tony Lywood, Mayor of Millom Angela Dixon and Millom Town Councillor Richard Pattinson