A HAMPSHIRE MP today made a last ditch attempt to save a village bank facing the axe.

Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage is campaigning against banking giant HSBC's decision to shut its branch in Lee-on-the Solent which is the village's last remaining bank.

The outlet closes on Friday, November 28 with all its staff moving to neighbouring branches.

But while customers requiring personal services can instead use the Post Office, business customers will be unable to do their banking there.

Ms Dineage has been lobbying the bank to allow business customers access to the Post Office.

Now she has made a rallying call to politicians to step in and protect its future and to stem a wave of closures by big banks in other rural communities across the country.

Her demands follow Business Secretary Vince Cable last week promising to write to big banks, urging them to keep branches open in communities where there were no other outlets.

Speaking at today's Treasury Questions debate, Ms Dinenage said: “Can I urge the chancellor to support the BIS Secretary in calls for banks not to shut down the last branch in a town?

“HSBC are about to shut the last branch in Lee-on-the-Solent, leaving businesses with no banking support at all.”

The Economic secretary to the treasury Andrea Leadson said: “There are many people who are concerned about bank closures, in fact recently I had a roundtable with a number of banks and challenger banks to discuss this issue, not least of which is the change of people towards mobile banking and telephone banking but we're certainly looking very closely at this.”

Afterwards Ms Dinenage said: “Lee-on-the-Solent is home to a huge number of small businesses, many of whom depend upon the services of their local bank which is why it is so worrying to hear that HSBC is soon to close.”

HSBC is working to provide alternative options to business customers.

A spokeswoman put the closure down to declining footfall due to changing customer habits including increasing use of internet, smart phone and telephone banking.

She added: “Decisions like this are never easy, but we worked with the small number of customers who use the branch to help them reorganise their finances ahead of the closure.

“All our personal customers have access to their accounts, to withdraw and pay in cash, at any UK post office and all residents of Lee-on-the-Solent will continue to have access to several 'fee free' ATMs within the local area.”