Hand Ulster Bank buildings over to the people - cllr

Seamus Enright?

A councillor in Belturbet has urged his fellow members to support his bid to press Ulster Bank hierarchy in handing over the now disused bank branch building to the community.

Independent Town Councillor Seamus Fitzpatrick says Ulster Bank should acknowledge the support shown by townspeople over the years and make the goodwill gesture in the wake of its recent departure.

As of close-of-business on May 24 last, Ulster Bank Ireland officially closed the doors for good on its former bank branches in Belturbet, Killeshandra and Kilnaleck.

Customers’ accounts in Killeshandra have now transferred to Arva, Kilnaleck’s to Ballyjamesduff and Belturbet’s to Ballyconnell.

This was further preceded by the closure of bank sub-offices in Swanlinbar, Carrigallen on the Cavan-Leitrim border, and in Castlepollard, near Finea.

However, Ulster Bank has dismissed any such suggestion when the possibility of donating the Belturbet site, and others, was put them.

'We will be maintaining all the buildings that we own securely and properly until such time as they are sold,' a spokesperson told this newspaper.

Cllr Fitzpatrick, who previously suggested the mayoral chain, donated by the bank to the then Town Commissioners, should be 'melted down' with the value taken from it, and, more recently, joined a protest outside the Belturbet branch on its final day of trading, raised the motion at last week’s town council meeting.

He said that Ulster Bank and its parent company RBS should 'donate' the bank branches to the community. The bank has been added to a list of 20 nationwide up for sale though selling agent DTZ Sherry FitzGerald.

Properties to be disposed of by Ulster Bank are said to range in value from €200,000 to over €2m, depending on location.

No guide valuation has yet been placed on the bank buildings located in Cavan The Celt understands.

'They should donate the bank premises to the town, and I’ll tell you why. They should do it for the loyal years of service the people of this town showed that bank, for 150 years they did it,' he said.

Similar such suggestions were also made in relation to the now-vacant bank branch building by members of the community in Killeshandra.

Cllr Fitzpatrick called on the council to write to the CEO of Ulster Bank, Jim Brown, to express this view.

It is the second time the bank has taken on such a widespread sale of its own properties since it was left to dispose of 49 First Active branch outlets nationwide back in 2009.