A Penparc-based county councillor has expressed his frustration following the failure of the NatWest mobile banking van to be present at Cardigan town centre on the first Thursday of the year.

Customers have been using a weekly mobile bank every week at the Fairfield Car Park since the closure of Cardigan’s NatWest branch in May.

However, Cllr Clive Davies has revealed that on the evening of Wednesday, 3 January, he was told that the mobile bank would not be present the following day due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

The bank suggested on social media that customers could use banking services located at the local post office instead.

“Simply put, the absence of NatWest banking van from Cardigan is completely unacceptable,” he said. “Access to banking services had already been reduced due to the Christmas period and NatWest’s cancellation last week was frustrating for many small businesses and customers looking to take advantage of the banking facilities available.

“The suggestion by NatWest that customers should rather use banking services at the local post office is both incorrect and misleading, with many services unavailable at the post office or they may take a longer time to be processed.

“Frustratingly, many customers like myself were faced with a lengthy journey to Carmarthen or Aberystwyth to partake in their banking duties – rather than having the ability to do so locally, as should be the case.”

Ceredigion MP Ben Lake, who has tabled a bill in Parliament aiming to enhance access to banking services in rural areas, said that the most common complaint was the “brief window of time” that the van had at every stop.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition on Wednesday