COUNCIL FORMALLY OPPOSES THE CLOSURE OF THE WESTPAC BRANCH, CARNAMAH

 The Carnamah Shire Council has resolved to formally oppose Westpac’s decision to close the local Carnamah Branch and expressed its disappointment at the bank’s failure to conduct a Social Impact Assessment study before deciding on the closure.

Council initiated a survey seeking community input receiving 203 responses from local and neighbouring towns’ residents, with 73% of all responses received as a hard copy.

The survey results show that 38% of Carnamah’s population consider face-to-face banking to be an essential service and that they don’t support closure of the Branch.

Shire President Cr Merle Isbister said: “Unfortunately, Westpac has made its decision to close our local branch without undertaking any Social Impact Assessment on what the closure means to our community. Because Westpac clearly doesn’t know or perhaps doesn’t care about the impact the closure will have on our community, we undertook a survey which showed that the clear majority oppose the closure.”

Council is calling upon the Prime Minister, the Premier, local Federal and State Parliamentary members to advocate for the retention of Westpac’s Carnamah Branch. “Council recognises that trying to influence Westpac to keep our local branch open is literally a ‘David and Goliath’ mission requiring a collective mindset” said Cr Isbister.

Accordingly, Council is also lobbying Westpac’s CEO Peter King and the Westpac Board to support the community of Carnamah to maintain our local Branch.

The results of the community survey can be accessed by following this link https://bit.ly/3EsHg5s. 

Cr Merle Isbister
Shire President 21/11/2022

All enquiries: Cr Merle Isbister, Shire President 0428 511 030 or Robert Paull, CEO 0448 876 385

 

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