A RENFREWSHIRE politician has slammed the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for 'failing to provide any real justification' for choosing to close the Renfrew branch.

RBS recently announced it was to close 62 of its branches in Scotland including the site in Canal Street.

Last Friday, Gavin Newlands, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, met with representatives from RBS as well as Renfrew councillor John Shaw, Gordon Burgess from Renfrew Development Trust and Effie McGachie from Renfrew Community Council to discuss the decision.

Bank bosses were asked to provide more information on the announced closure and were questioned on their claim the branch has a low number of regular users.

The closure would leave residents in Renfrew having to make the journey to Paisley to do their banking.

RBS was also questioned on what plans they have to help vulnerable customers. 

Mr Newlands said: “This was undoubtedly one of the most frustrating meetings that I‘ve had since my election in 2015.

"RBS promised me they would attend this meeting and present their case as to why they made the decision to close this popular branch, including providing detailed statistics on the number of customers and businesses using this bank each week.

"RBS couldn’t even do this and their justification amounted to asking us to trust their case to close this bank branch.

“I am sorry but I don’t trust their reasoning and neither do the people of Renfrew. I’m a customer of this bank and I know first-hand how busy this branch is.

“RBS is a publicly owned brank which was bailed out by the taxpayer, and it’s completely unacceptable for them to attempt to bail out of our town centres."

Mr Newlands is continuing to collect signatures to a parliamentary petition which will be presented to the House of Commons. 

The document will urge the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to intervene and stop the branch from closing. 

A spokesman for RBS said: “As customers continue to change the way they bank, we must change the way we serve them, so we are investing in our more popular branches and shaping our network, replacing traditional branches with alternative ways to bank.”