Cash point campaigner saves neighbours £33,000 a year

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Cash point campaigner saves neighbours £33,000 a year

Postby dutchman » Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:54 pm

She has been campaigning since 2016 to get a free ATM in her area

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Nuneaton resident who helped her neighbours save £33,000 a year in cash-point fees has won a national award for her tireless campaigning.

Elaine Lovell started her cash-point campaign in 2016 after realising vulnerable residents and those on a lower income living in the Hill Top and Caldwell area were spending up to £21 a month to withdraw their benefits from the local fee-charging ATM.

The nearest free-to-use ATM was a long walk from the area which meant many older and vulnerable residents chose to pay a fee instead - leaving some of them close to the breadline.

But she fought for a free-to-use ATM to be installed locally and has now been awarded for her efforts.

Tonight (September 30) she won the Best Consumer Campaign at the coveted Sheila McKechnie National Campaigner Awards.

She estimated residents were collectively paying out around £33,000 a year in cash-point fees, based on her conversations with local people.

So, supported by other volunteers within the HTC Big Local Partnership, Big Local advisers and local community development workers, she was put in contact with agencies that could help, including her local authority.

Inspired by her work, a ‘Financial Inclusion Profile’ was created for the area that included case studies she gathered.

The campaigner also helped to create an ATM ‘Walk Map’ showing how far and difficult the journey to the nearest free-to-use ATM could be and collected further case studies to share with LINK, the cash machine provider.

Her evidence was submitted to the Treasury Select Committee into consumers' access to financial services.

It took almost three years, but the Hill Top and Caldwell community now has a free-to-use ATM. LINK has also since launched a new website dedicated to helping other areas acquire free ATMs.

Now the grandmother is hoping that other areas like hers will apply and stop much needed money leaving the community.

She also plans to campaign for a second free-to-use ATM after Nuneaton was identified by Which? as one of the worst towns in the UK for losing free ATMs.

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