RAMSBOTTOM will soon be left without a single high street banking branch after Santander announced it will be closing down in the town.

The branch in Bolton Street will close its doors for the last time on June 20.

It is one of 140 of the bank's branches set to shut across the country in a move that the bank estimates could cost up to 1,270 jobs.

The closure means that there will soon be no high street bank branches remaining in Ramsbottom after it was announced that the town's RBS branch would also close this month.

Ramsbottom residents will now have to travel to Rawtenstall or Bury to access their nearest Santander branches, located 4.3 and 4.8 miles away respectively.

However Santander current and business account holders can bank at Post Office branches, with the nearest one located in Morrisons in King Street, Ramsbottom.

Explaining the reasons for the closures, Santander highlighted changes in the way customers are banking including visiting branches less in favour of online, mobile and telephone banking.

In the last three years Santander reported that its in branch transactions have fallen by 23 per cent, while digital transactions have increased by 99 per cent in the same period.

Susan Allen, Santander's head of retail and business banking, said: “The way our customers are choosing to bank with us has changed dramatically in recent years, with more and more customers using online and mobile channels. As a result, we have had to take some very difficult decisions over our less visited branches, and those where we have other branches in close proximity.

"We will support customers of closing branches to find alternative ways to bank with us that best suit their individual needs. We are also working alongside our unions to support colleagues through these changes and to find alternative roles for those impacted wherever possible.

“We continue to believe that branches have a vital role to play and we will be refurbishing 100 of our branches over the next two years. We are confident that following these changes we will have the right branch network to serve our customers’ changing needs, and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future.”

In April 2018, the Bolton Street Santander branch was victim to an armed robbery when a gang of masked men armed with machetes targeted the branch and a G4S van parked at the bank.

The robbers made off with cash before fleeing in a red Ford Focus.

They then crashed into a Land Rover in Bolton Road West, causing it to collide with a row of parked cars, and abandoned the vehicle to make off on foot.

Three men were later arrested after they were identified following CCTV enquiries.