Residents and councillors have been reacting to the closure of Hatfield’s Lloyds branch, which leaves the town with just one bank.

The bank announced they would be shutting more than 40 branches in the coming months, with Hatfield’s to go on March 1 next year.

The past year has seen HSBC, Santander and Barclays all leave the town centre, with just Halifax set to be left when Lloyds closes.

Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Zukowskyj has raised concerns about the bank closures at council meetings, and he believes people still need face-to-face banking.

“The concern for the town is that for many visitors the reason to come into the town centre is disappearing, people, including myself, used to need to do some banking bits and pieces face-to-face and therefore needed to visit the town centre,” he said.

“That has almost disappeared completely. I now have to go to Welwyn Garden City to undertake those activities. For many others, they are unable or find difficulty undertaking their banking needs online, and for some they struggle to get online at all.

“This is, as I see it, a potential disability issue for some, and for others they are simply being left further behind, excluded from access to the norms we expect in society. Digital exclusion is becoming a real problem and issue for very many in our society.

“I asked at a previous council meeting what the council had done to try and retain banks in Hatfield town centre. The answer appears to have been ‘asked nicely’. They simply need to do more.

“Given the disability and exclusion issues some residents face, the council needs to make it clear to Halifax that their service is now essential and the council will go above and beyond to ensure they stay.”

Residents have also been reacting to the Lloyds closure and believe more should be done to improve the town centre.

One Welwyn Hatfield Times reader wrote on our Facebook: “It’s a joke. It’s a student town. They should be building it up not bringing it down.”

Another wrote: “Have to go back to using a mattress for our money.”

In response to the closure, one reader simply wrote: “Greed before customers.”