The treasurer of a community centre has been frustrated by an attempt to open a bank account which led to three months of problems.

Louise May is part of the Friends of the Ellendune Community Centre and wanted to secure a safe storage space for funds raised through donations and events which could go towards improving the centre.

In April, after experiencing difficulties with another banking brand, she went into a local branch of Lloyds to open a community account and included details of her co-signatory.

When six weeks passed with no word from the bank, she popped back in to see what was causing the hold-up.

Louise said: “I'm in a group set up to help the community centre by organising events to raise money to repair the roof and keep the place open.

"When I opened the account, Lloyds told me everything was OK, then when I went back they said the co-signatory had to go into a branch to identify herself.

"She's a 76-year-old woman who doesn't drive, so she had to get the bus from Wroughton into the town centre in June. 

"Then they said the scan never arrived so she had to make the same journey again and this time the scanner wasn't working so they asked her to come back a third time.

"When I complained, the complaints team said they had trouble contacting the branch.

"It's ridiculous, they make it so difficult. None of these banks seem to want community accounts, most banks don't do them at all anymore."

The Adver understands that the initial application completed by the co-signatory included a first name that was slightly different to the passport certified in-branch.

This created an issue as Lloyds’ identity and verification process could not match the name on the application to the name on the passport, so the co-signatory was asked to come back in to verify the documents and correct the mistake.

Lloyds Bank has confirmed to the Adver that the application has been sorted out, the account is now open, and the customer has been informed.

A spokesperson said: “We provide banking services to over one million British businesses, and supporting our customers’ financial needs is our top priority.

"This includes helping over 105,000 small businesses and charities with new banking last year.

“We apologise for any frustration the Ellendune Community Club has experienced and have now been able to open their account”.

Lloyds is due to close its Old Town branch next February.