GLASGOW councillors are being urged to back plans which could help reverse the decision to close six TSB Bank branches throughout the city.

Labour councillor Martin Rhodes will present a motion at a full council this week asking for a report detailing the steps the council is taking to work with partners such as credit unions, advice services and commercial banks to ensure residents have access to basic banking facilities.

Mr Rhodes is issuing a plea to ensure that there is provision for free ATMs across the city and all its communities while ensuring that lack of available cash and the blight of vacant bank branches are not barriers to local high street growth.

READ MORE: Calls to halt TSB bank closures in Glasgow​

The proposal follows the announcement to close six city TSB branches indefinitely amid a "significant shift in customer behaviour" as more people bank online.

The closures come as part a UK-wide cut, which will see a total of 164 branches shut across the country and the loss of 960 jobs.

Banks in Glasgow scheduled to close by June 2021 include branches in Anniesland, Dennistoun, Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Partick and Springburn.

TSB bosses previously said the closures were not an "easy decision", however the issue had been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

At the beginning of the month Labour councillor Aileen McKenzie launched a petition to challenge TSB to reverse the decision.

Ms McKenzie stated via change.org that the decision would negatively impact the most vulnerable in these communities where there is already a lack of access to banks, and ATMs that don’t charge for cash withdrawal.

She said: “This is the last bank branch left in the community I represent Springburn, and the last cash withdrawal machines that do not charge you to have access to your own money.

“This decision will hit the poorest in the community the hardest and also those who are digitally excluded.”

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In his motion to full council, councillor Rhodes will ask members to note the decision to close another six branches in Glasgow while research from Which? Magazine suggests that Glasgow will have lost around 50 per cent of its local bank branches by 2021.

He writes: “Similar concerns have been expressed about reductions in the network of free ATMs.

“The council believes that local and easily accessible bank branches are an important part of building a local community.

“[It] recognises that the pace of change towards digital banking risks isolating vulnerable residents and undermining local, small businesses; and that access to free ATMs is vital for our communities.

“The council further believes that this situation is contrary to the spirit of this Council's Financial Inclusion Strategy, namely that services should be provided locally and accessibly, and at the earliest opportunity to reduce crisis demand on the public purse.

“[It is] contrary to the Council's Strategic Plan to support small businesses and support business diversity in local high streets across the City.”