Villagers “too rich for ATM”
August 23, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Residents of a Cornish village have been hit with an unusual banking issue – they are just too rich for a cash point to be installed.
Local MP for Porthleven, Andrew George, has revealed the problem to the West Briton today, after receiving a letter from cash machine supplier Link Interchange Network Ltd.
Mr George said: “I am not sure how the people of Porthleven will react to this news. I’m not sure how [Link] have gathered their data.”
Pointing out the fact that many rich city-dwellers’ holiday homes are in the area, he added that “it may well be that some of this [affluence] is experienced by some residents who do not spend all of their time in the community”.
In the letter, Link Interchange said: “This programme looked at areas which were more than one kilometre from a free ATM (Automated Teller Machine) and which were ranked in the lowest 25 per cent for the Index of Multiple Deprivation.”
Unable to find a sufficiently “deprived” district, they passed on supplying the machine, due to Porthleven’s “relative affluence”.
Mr George told reporters that “some constituents have asked me to make representations to Link to request that they provide free access to cash as otherwise they would have to travel to Helston on what is now a poorer bus service than has been experienced in the past.
“I would be interested to know what local people thought about this.”
