Helston Town Council has confirmed that "significant progress" is being made on the creation of a Community Banking Hub for the town, following the closure of all its banks. 

The progression of the hub is being made by the national team from Cash Access UK, who are project managing all aspects of the community banking hub for Helston.

This will be a welcome development for Helston, which has been without a bank branch since Lloyds closed its doors in January this year. The hub will give residents who need access to basic banking services and will help.

Today (Friday, June 23) Helston Town Council shared more information on its Facebook page regarding the next steps for the hub, including that it is due to be open in the next eight months. 

It said: “We will soon have leaflets and a ‘Frequently Asked Questions' factsheet that we will be able to share with the Helston community, which will explain how the banking hub will work.

“We expect the banking hub to be open in the next eight months, so watch this space for more news once the location of the hub is revealed.”

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A community banking hub is a shared banking space, like traditional bank branches but available to everyone. They provide essential baking services including counter services run by the major banks and the Post Office.

In March, Derek Thomas MP for St Ives, West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly came under fire from local residents for allegedly taking credit for campaigning for the baking hub.

However, according to those who worked on bringing the hub to Helston, the MP was not actually involved in the process.

Jean Slater who is involved in bringing the hub into Helston, said at the time: “I have personally been involved in this matter, and want you all to know that this success is actually the result of many months of hard work by elected members and employees of Helston Town Council, John Warwick of the Place Shaping Board, organisations such as Citizen’s Advice Cornwall, represented by CEO Gill Pipkin, Inclusion Cornwall manager Bev Wilson and Board Member Andrea Gilbert, and local businesses through Helston Chamber of Commerce and Industry."

When contacted by the Packet, Derek Thomas did apologise for the way in which his comments could have been taken and stressed: "Helston's particular success is down to the hard work of many other people to make this happen."