LUCEA, Hanover — Lucea businessman and senior citizen Patrick Kerr has been a customer of Scotiabank Lucea branch for more than four decades. He believes that the planned closure of that branch next month will impact the elderly and entrepreneurs, who have been doing business there, the hardest.

“I know it will affect me,” Kerr told the Jamaica Observer West.

He argued that even though there are ABMs in the town, there are some transactions that need to be done at a branch.

He said that the nearest branches to his place of business are located in Negril, Westmoreland and Fairview, Montego Bay, a distance of roughly 44 kilometres.

“Going to any of them will take up a lot of your time, because, it will take at least 40 minutes one way to Negril, or to Montego Bay based on the traffic,” he said.

“It is going to take at least 40 minutes and then to be in the bank for another long time… overall, it is going to take at least three hours just to go and do one transaction and to return to my business. Now, that’s almost all of your day gone.”

Kerr, a Justice of the Peace, also expressed concerns for other elderly persons.

“Transportation will be very hard for them [elderly], and for those of them who are just living off their meagre pension, it just will not work,” said Kerr, noting that there are many pensioners getting as little as $2,800 fortnightly.

“So, it will be difficult for them to go there [Scotiabank Negril or Fairview branches] to collect the $2,800 and return bearing in mind that travelling from the town of Lucea to Negril and back costs $450, almost the same as the round trip to Bogue in St James.”

For Nerris Hawthrone, the chairperson of the Lucea Development Initiative Committee, security is a major concern.

“Can you imagine when people go to Negril to draw large sums of money and are coming back?” she asked.

“It is going to be more work for the police, it is going to be hard for everybody,” said Hawthrone, a senior citizen.

Three weeks ago, a meeting called by Scotiabank to discuss their decision to close the Lucea branch ended abruptly, after customers became angry and walked out of the gathering.

During the lengthy meeting which was held in the church hall of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Island in Lucea,

customers were handed letters advising them of the planned closure of the facility.

“Scotia Jamaica has undertaken a review of our service delivery network to ensure long-term viability through heightened operational efficiency. As a result of this review we advise that effective May 22, 2015, we will be closing our branch at Lucea

and your account(s) will automatically be transferred to the Negril branch located in Westmoreland,” the letters stated.

And in his address Scotiabank’s District Vice President Michael Shaw said, “We have undertaken a review of our operating model and retail distribution network and identified opportunities to streamline our operations and improve efficiency.”

However, this did not go down well with angry customers present.

“My advice to all of us here, since we are no longer valued customers, we should take our money go where we want to go and not only that, since you [Scotibank] has no interest in Hanover to provide the services that we need, take you machines [ABM] and go as well, take your machines and go,” said one of the roughly 100 customers in attendance at the meeting.

But Executive Vice President for Retail Banking Patsy Latchman-Atterbury, in a bid to appease the boisterous customers, said in the upcoming days the company would be demonstrating to them how much they mean to the bank.

She said employees would be put in place to assist customers during the transition period.

He remarked, however, did not prevent the scores of customers from storming out of the meeting.

Scotiabank has had a presence in Hanover for more than 60 years, and is currently location on Willie Delisser Blvd in Lucea.

— Anthony Lewis