Rhayader residents and visitors were unable to get cash out of the town’s ATM’s for days over the recent bank holiday

Town councillors raised the issue at a recent meeting saying people were without cash for days on end.

They said elderly people are particularly hard hit and it is not just getting money out but also depositing money that they would like.

Some councillors said a mobile bank van has been visiting Builth Wells and maybe they could also ask for one.

But town and county councillor Angela Davies said she had asked about a mobile van before.

“They said ‘no’ when I asked before because they said we have cash points in the town, a post office and we do not have a large enough population for it. We need to get onto the cash machine operators to ensure they refill the machines often enough, particularly before a holiday weekend.”

Councillor James Stuart said they also need to encourage those shops which do not accept cards to do so because it would give people another option.

Councillor Rhys Thomas said he had heard it was the same in Llandrindod Wells and that the cash machine at Tesco had run out of money.

Rhayader Mayor Councillor Clare Evans said she wondered if its something they should also relay to their Senedd members.

“It’s an inability for people to get access to their own cash. It’s a huge issue particularly for older people since we lost the HSBC branch. It’s also affecting business because I know there were people going to go into a shop in town and they could not because they did not have any cash.”

Members agreed to contact the cash machine operators about the issue and the Senedd members to raise the concern. They will also ask again about the possibility of having a mobile bank van to visit Rhayader.