A HIGH street bank will close the doors of its branch in Pitsea, but staff have been reassured their jobs are safe.

Workers at Santander will be transferred to the Basildon town centre branch, or given other roles within the bank, when the branch, in the Broadway, Pitsea, closes on October 24.

Mo Larkin, mayor of Basildon and ward member for Pitsea south east, said the closure would hit older residents in the community hardest.

She said: “Some older residents can use the bus, but they can’t always get out to Basildon and dip into facilities locally so it will be a loss. Any closure of any business or shops is going to hurt. I’m quite sad to hear it’s closing. It’s fine for people who drive and can get to the town centre, but sometimes you need to bank locally – we will miss it.”

A Santander spokesman said: “We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause our customers and this certainly isn’t our intention.

“Because of the relatively small number of customers this branch serves, it has become prohibitively costly to run, so we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close it.

“There are other Santander branches within three miles, the nearest being Basildon, and we also offer online and telephone banking. We’ll do what we can help to help our customers through the transition.”

Ron Livesey, Tory councillor for Pitsea North West, said he was surprised by news of the bank’s closure, which comes as the town undergoes a massive revamp. He added: “I’m certain it will be a thriving little area and anticipate a much busier Pitsea once the regeneration is finished, so the closure looks a bit shortsighted to me.”

The Broadway branch has been earmarked for closure as part of the firm’s multi-million pound branch change programme, which nationally will see three new branches open in the next couple of months, as well as the refurbishment of 150 existing ones.

It also plans to open branches in areas where it currently doesn’t have a presence and merge a number of its banks in towns where there are multiple branches.