Free to use cash machine installed at The Better Food Company store

Welwyn Garden City, 7 December 2012: Following a campaign by local residents for a cash machine to be installed in Bristol’s St Werburghs area, PayPoint has risen to the challenge and installed the first free-to-use cash machine in the area at The Better Food Company on Sevier Street.

The cash machine at The Better Food Company is ideally placed to serve the local community. Until now, the nearest free ATM was over 700 metres away, situated on the other side of the M32 in the Eastville area of Bristol, where it is particularly difficult to access for elderly and disabled residents.

Phil Haughton, Managing Director of The Better Food Company, said:  “I am delighted to be able to offer our customers this much-needed service - the only free-to-use cash machine available between Stoke’s Croft and Eastville. Our customers and local residents were not being served well by cash machine operators so it is very satisfying to see that their campaign has been such a success, thanks to PayPoint.”

The campaign for a free-to-use cash machine in the area was supported by Stephen Williams, MP for Bristol West, who commented: “A high proportion of St Werburghs’ 2,500 residents are under significant financial pressures, so it is important that charges at cash machines are not another burden. We are currently under-served locally by retail banks so I really welcome PayPoint’s action in installing this ATM here at The Better Food Company. I’m confident it will help local residents as paying to use a cash machine will no longer be a concern for people living in the area.”

Peter Brooker, Head of Corporate Affairs at PayPoint, added: “PayPoint is committed to helping retailers meet the needs of their customers and local communities. We strive to bring social benefits to local communities, whether through our payments terminals or by providing cash machines that benefit local residents in, what is for many, a tough economic time. We are delighted to announce this installation as part of our wider corporate responsibility and ambition to improve financial inclusion, which, in this case, we have achieved by ensuring that St Werburghs’ residents have free, quick and easy access to their cash.”

ENDS…