NORTH Ayrshire’s MP has hit out at banking giant RBS after it was announced they would be cutting mobile services.

Last year, the Herald were first to reveal that the Royal Bank would be closing local branches due to an apparent downturn in custom.

The Saltcoats, Kilwinning and Kilbirnie sites will close in the next few months and now it has emerged that more than 50 per cent of mobile banking will be cut.

Patricia Gibson MP is calling on RBS to be upfront with customers and communities, rather than continuing to cut vital services even further when the full impact of branch closures cannot have been fully assessed yet.

Commenting, Patricia Gibson MP said: “This is an appalling decision from RBS. Not only have they reduced the service to customers across the country even further; they’ve done so by quietly changing the timetable as opposed to being straight with people. It’s yet another betrayal of RBS customers in Ayrshire and across Scotland.

“It’s time for RBS to be upfront with customers and communities. This action erodes trust in the bank even further after their frequent closures over recent years. They ought to remember who saved the bank from going under just a decade ago.”

“When RBS closed its branch in West Kilbride in 2015, the mobile service was supposed to provide some comfort to small business and customers affected by these closures.

“Communities across Scotland have already been hit hard by closures, and RBS must be held to account for a further downgrading of services.

“The UK Government needs to wake up to the damage that these cuts are having to our communities. This bank is still majority-owned by the public – yet it is the public that continue to lose out.

“The Tories can’t sit on their hands and let our communities be betrayed any longer. The UK Government needs use its 72.9 per cent shareholding to step in and save these vital lifeline local banking services.