It has emerged that other areas on the west coast of Scotland – Skye and Lochaber are two – are having difficulties with the Bank of Scotland, not unlike Islay’s current experience.
Gus Newman from Stormcats on Islay has published the full texts of letters from Jamie McGrigor to the Bank in the Comments posted below our first major article on this matter – which has become the forum to use to exchange information and opinions on it. Jim Mather, Argyll’s MSP and Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism has himself made some useful contributions there to the discussion.
Jim Mather is to put a proposal of his own to the Bank.
Jamie McGrigor has had a further letter from the Bank after having publicly declared his dissatisfaction with the first. He has still not received a response from the CEO to whom he originally written. However this time the courtesy of reply was at least passed to someone who is centrally involved in banking rather than with media relations. The message was the same, though.
Donald Kerr, Director of Commercial Banking in Scotland, has reiterated that whatever revisions the Bank may make in the light of the response to their withdrawal of the Business Manager for Islay, ‘there will be no full time representation on Islay’.
He also repeated the offer that a representative would travel to Islay by arrangement for face-to-face meetings and that the Bank would try to ensure that this was always the same person.
However, contacts made by Islay businesses by the only everyday routes to be offered – call centre phone calls and email – would naturally, although Mr Kerr was careful not to say so, be dealt with by whoever was on duty at the time. This undermines the Bank’s attempt at sleight-of-hand in suggesting that having one ‘Relationship Manager’ make the visits to the island would see that ‘local knowledge is optimised’ .
In his reply to this, Jamie McGrigor has written: ‘Local knowledge is very important as is the feeling that loyal bank customers are being listened to.
‘It does not appear that many, if indeed any, Islay SMEs were questioned by the organisers of the survey used to arrive at conclusions which are obviously not acceptable to constituents on Islay.
‘Had you done a survey in Islay I think the number of complaints would certainly not have been very small but judging by my postbag, very large.
‘As I have said before I suspect this island, with its nine distilleries, generates more income for the UK Treasury than any other island in Scotland and possibly the UK. It seems absurd that those who live and work there cannot have the services of a local bank manager.
‘I hope I am not being obtuse but that is the way I see it and I have to tell you that the Bank is building up bad feeling and losing the respect of many of its loyal customers.
‘I understand the current difficulties faced by the Bank and the wish to put the bank back into a position to pay dividends to its share holders but I entreat you to look at reversing your plans to leave Islay without a local manager of the Bank of Scotland’.
McGrigor has touched on one key issue here – the Bank’s prioritising of its need to repair the health of its own finances – there are bonuses to be paid, for God’s sake.
He alsos, ay the start of his reply, touches on a second core issue, a cultural one: ‘With great respect, I feel that Islay and similar islands off the west of Scotland, are different from mainland communities.
‘You emphasise that you are listening to the concerns expressed by me and my constituents and are currently assessing whether any further support is appropriate for the Highlands and Islands,
‘I do not feel that a broad brush solution is appropriate to an area with so many communities of different kinds’.
And there we have it.
The poet, William Carlos Williams once said – in discussing the wa modern poets create a form to say what they need to say, rather than choosing an off-the-shelf form like an ode or a sonnet: ‘A crab needs a crab shaped box’.
Islay is currently having its limbs chopped off to make it fit a standard box.