A trade union has condemned the closure of a bank's call centre, threatening 128 jobs.

The Alliance and Leicester's centre at Charter House in Ashford town centre is to close in June after 25 years, with staff facing redundancy or relocation.

The work is being transferred to Merseyside and Leicestershire.

Nigel Cotgrove, national official of the CWU (Communications Workers Union) said: "This is a bitter blow to the hard working members who are among the best performing staff in the whole bank."

The union has appealed directly to the bank's owner Santander, to use its members as the core of a new long-term contact centre in Ashford.

But Mr Cotgrove said: "We've been unable to convince the bank to reverse its decision.

"We are now focusing on options to keep as many people in jobs as possible through redeployment or relocation to other jobs at Santander.

The contact centre at the Park Street office block deals with current accounts and savings calls and has been open since 1985.

The work and jobs will move to other Alliance & Leicester sites, primarily in Bootle, Merseyside, and Narborough, Leicestershire.

Audio: Terry Jackson, CWU regional secretary for the south east, talks to reporter Ruth Banks

The company said that all staff at Charter House will be offered relocation or redeployment to other roles in the South East where it has about 90 vacancies.

The company says the decison may lead to a number of redundancies where staff do no wish to relocate and cannot be redeployed. But it hopes these will be voluntary.

An Alliance and Leicester spokesman said: "There is never a good time to announce changes such as this and we are acutely aware of the uncertainty staff are facing."