Link Assures New Selkirk Cash Provision
Added at 10:36 on 07 July 2025
SBC Councillor Caroline Cochrane’s Initiative to ensure more cash outlets in Selkirk appears to be paying off.
Link are the supervising authority over cash point provision in the UK, and in April, after the closure of Selkirk Post Office, their position was that they were not recommending the provision of any new cash access in Selkirk. However, they have revised their stance after Caroline submitted an appeal.
Link sent a representative to visit the town and double-check their data, as a result of which they have agreed the following:
- There is a gap in cash access services available in the local area that cause a significant impact for the community.
- The local area needs access to a cash deposit and a cash withdrawal service.
- The new service should be provided in Selkirk.
- As a minimum the service should be a new Assisted Cash Service
What this means in practice is not yet clear, but, since 2021, as part of a banking industry agreement through the Access To Cash Action Group, Link will commission services to meet the cash needs of the community as a whole.
Link is a not-for-profit entity, with 32 member organisations, including High Street banks, building societies, the Post Office and independent ATM operators, so it may well be one of these that ends up supplying the service. Link’s financial inclusion programme subsidises free-to-use cash machines in deprived areas, which costs around £1.5 million each month, since ATMs supplying free cash cost money to provide and service.
The service will be set up by Cash Access UK, a not-for-profit company, with Members (including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander), and Subscribers (including AIB NI, Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank, TSB, and Vigin Money). These are the banks who have chosen to come together to protect cash access for their customers and provide the community bankers in banking hubs.
Link say “We expect these services to be ready within three months of us sharing this assessment”.
[Photo credit: Link]