A new banking hub is to open within the next few months after fears more than 40,000 people would be left with just one bank.

The temporary base for the Cash Access UK hub will be The Hope Street Centre in Sheerness town centre.

The not-for-profit service provider – backed by 10 major high street banks – says it will open in the spring.

It did not confirm where its permanent base would be in the town.

News of the hub’s arrival follows TSB confirming it will close its Sheerness High Street branch on Thursday, March 27.

It had delayed closing the premises in September after new regulations from LINK – the UK’s cash access network – said it had to remain open until new services were in place.

Islanders voiced their anger when TSB said it was leaving Sheppey in May, leaving a population of more than 40,000 with just one bank – Nationwide.

It comes after HSBC, Barclays, Halifax and NatWest quit the town in recent years.

TSB customer Gerry Cunningham, who has lived in Minster for 24 years, set up a petition to keep the bank open.

Within a month the 65-year-old said almost 5,000 people had signed it.

He sent it to TSB’s headquarters in Scotland but did not get a response.

TSB said it had not taken the decision to close the branch “lightly” but pointed to a 43% decrease in customer transactions in Sheerness between December 2019 and December last year as a reason for the move. This period includes the pandemic.

There was also uproar when Tesco cafe in Bridge Road announced it was going card-only and introducing electronic kiosks.

Cllr Dolley Wooster, who is chairman of Sheerness Town Council, said part of the reason Islanders are passionate about cash services is due to the demographic.

She said: “We have an ageing population on Sheppey with many still wanting to operate in cash rather than card or online.

“Only pension day there are still queues at ATMs and in the two remaining banks.

“A lot of the businesses, such as Beano’s cafe, also only take cash because they do not want to have to pay card charges.

“So it's important these services are retained on Sheppey.”