Locals and businesses are furious after the island’s only bank announced its intention to close.
The St Mary’s branch will close in 2022. This will leave the Scillies off Cornwall with no bank branches.
This move comes after the expected closure of 48 Lloyds and Halifax Banks across the UK next year.
Phil Moon, who operates a restaurant on the island and a take-out business, told BBC that the closure was a shock.
Customers are upset that Lloyds in St Mary’s will close their doors in 2022.
Lloyds recommends people could continue banking at the postoffice after the closure.
Lloyds Bank stated that the decision was due in part to changes in customer behavior, which meant that the branch was less frequently used.
Mr Moon stated that Barclays was lost a few years ago, and Lloyds became the sole bank on the island. We never saw this coming.
A spokesperson for Lloyds said that people can still use their local post office.
They stated that a new community banker would be available to assist customers with their everyday banking. Customers can also continue to bank locally by visiting a nearby Post Office, which is just a short walk from the branch.
St. Martins Beach in Isles of Scilly is a popular place for sunseekers as well as sailors.
Moon stated that people who use the Post Office ‘just want to bank transactions’ would have to wait in line to get stamps or postal services.
He stated to the BBC that it would only slow down things and make things more difficult.
St Mary’s Post Office posted on Facebook that it had been “inundated with queries”.
It stated that it was working hard at finding ‘possible solution’ as quickly as possible.
Martin Kearlsley from the Post Office’s banking department stated that people are increasingly relying on the service for cash withdrawals and payments.
He stated, “We have five postal offices, one on each of the islands.”
“They’re going on serving all customers, not just Lloyds. They’re going to continue to make sure that every customer has access to cash.