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3 Jun
Belfast City Council has vowed to put pressure on Ulster Bank over plans to close branches.
At the monthly meeting of the full council on Wednesday evening (June 1), an SDLP proposal from Councillor Brian Heading was carried, calling on the council to meet with unions and the Chamber of Commerce to assess how the Dunmurry closure and other potential closures might affect the city.
Ulster Bank announced last month it will close nine branches across Northern Ireland - in the Collin area of Dunmurry, Belfast, as well as in Holywood, Warrenpoint, Antrim, Ballymoney, Larne, Comber, Maghera and Clogher. The branches will close between September and October.
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Councillor Brian Heading bemoaned the lack of response to the council after a motion was passed by the local authority a year and a half ago calling on the bank to appear before councillors.
He said: “There are 600 jobs under threat through some of the machinations of the Ulster Bank and the Allied Irish Bank in the Irish Republic. We have written to the Ulster Bank requesting a meeting, and we have also written to the head of NatWest requesting a meeting, and the council has not received any reply.
“Now when you consider we passed that motion in November 2020 - it is not through any fault of our staff - it is clear that the two financial institutions care even less about Belfast City Council than they do about the 600 jobs in the branches they are closing.”
He asked the Lord Mayor to convene a meeting with representatives from each of the political parties in the council, the Financial Services Union, and the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce to “assess how it affects the high streets” of the city. He asked for the meeting to be made within three weeks. The proposal gained cross party support.
Danske Bank has also announced its branches in Lurgan, Cookstown, Kilkeel and Fivemiletown will also close in September. The bank closed four branches last year.
In February 2021, Ulster Bank's parent company, NatWest, announced it would close down all business in the Republic of Ireland in the coming years.
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