GETTING STUNG!

News that the last bank in Blaenavon is to close, despite a petition with over 1,000 signatures and a meeting between HSBC and local councillors is a real blow to the town. News that HSBC have stated that they will retain the cash point is a small crumb off comfort. At least for a while most members of the public in the town will be able to access the ATM without getting charged for it, the question is for how long will the ATM remain.

Many non bank associated ATMs carry charges for cash withdrawals - ATM charges hit all of us, especially some of the most vulnerable people in our communities - by charging people to withdraw their own money. A couple of years ago on a visit to relatives in London, half-wake I nearly got stung at a service station on the M4, narrowly avoiding being charge £2.50 for a £20 withdrawal but ever since have endeavoured to be wise to the practice.

The last New Labour government chose not to regulate ATM charges, and there will not doubt be little interest expressed in solving the problem by the current Con Dem Westminster government. Some of the amounts being charged to use these ATMs are scandalous, to make matters worse there has been a history of sharp increases in charges in recent years. Some are now charging as much as £2.50 for every withdrawal - for anybody withdrawing £10 that an extra 25%!

This is a cost that many users can ill afford. To make matters worse it would appear that more deprived wards with no free cash withdrawal options are being targeted by these companies, this is disgraceful and unscrupulous behaviour by these ATM companies. From a standard £1.99 charge, about 60p will go to the owner of the site where the cash point is, roughly 60p is taken by the firm that owns the machine and another 40p goes to Link.

What little is left over - about 39p in this case - pays towards installing and maintaining the cash point. Very often people living in these communities that have seen the loss of local branches of banks and do not have the luxury of being able to travel to withdraw cash.  People's options have been further limited by the ongoing Post Office closure programme begun under the Conservatives and continued under the last New Labour government.

Many of our smaller communities, especially (but not just) in the Valley communities have lost their banks and their post offices, leaving people with little choice - so much for market forces. Even in those communities that are lucky enough to still have a post office, the days of withdrawing benefits and pensions directly and over the counter are long gone.

Since 1995 banks have closed 22% of their branch network, 15% of post office branches have been closed, 5% of building society branches have been closed. Machines which charge now account for over 40% of the 53,000 machines in the LINK network. In 2001 only 7,000 cash machines charged to get money out but by July 2009 that figure had rocketed to 25,000. It is high time that action is taken to protect our communities, it is wrong that unscrupulous companies should profit most from those who can afford it least.

Even some of the larger banks have their issues when it comes to charging people to make withdrawals. Back in October 2011 the House of Commons Treasury select committee wrote to the heads of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group expressing their concerns about the fact that two of Britain's largest banks had restrictions on basic account holders using commercial opponents cash machines. Basic accounts offer most of the services of a standard current account, but do not have overdraft facilities or chequebooks. Just for the record RBS is 83%-owned by the government, while Lloyds is 43% state-owned.

If I am being honest I expect little or no joy from the current Westminster government (their interests are a million miles away from Wales) and just like the previous then New Labour Government they have no interest or desire to take any action to regulate the proliferation of ATM charges. In Wales, it would be nice of the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government was to step up and work with local public service providers to provide free alternatives and to try to protect our communities from this unfair practice and unfair charges, but, I am not going to hold my breath.