THE opening hours of three TSB branches in East Lothian will be slashed this summer.

Dropping footfall has been blamed for the hours being cut at the bank’s branches in Haddington, North Berwick and Dunbar.

The changes will come into force from the end of July and will not affect the Musselburgh TSB branch.

A spokeswoman for TSB said that there had been a drop of eight per cent in customer transactions in Haddington, three per cent in Dunbar and one per cent in North Berwick.

Currently, the branches in Dunbar, Haddington and North Berwick are all open from 9.30am to 4.30pm from Monday to Friday, with a lunch hour 12.30-1.30pm.

However, from the end of July, the TSB branch in Haddington will only be open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, while the North Berwick branch will only be open between those hours on a Tuesday and Friday, and Dunbar will be open on a Monday and Thursday.

Carol Anderson, branch distribution director for Scotland at TSB, said: “Our customers use banking services in different ways and that is why we try to adapt our offer to deliver them the best possible service, however they choose to bank.

“This means investment in both branches and digital channels.

“With fewer people using [the branches], we are reducing the number of hours.

“Our TSB Partners will be working with our customers to support them as we make this change.”

Pippa Swan, chairwoman of Dunbar Community Council, felt it was disappointing to see a unit on High Street not being fully utilised.

Mrs Swan said: “I think all banks are making decisions about how they can best operate financially.

“They must have worked out their best business case is to work two days a week.

“I suspect some of the customers will find it sufficiently inconvenient that they will switch banks. We, as a community council, are aware of lots of people who did switch from the Royal Bank of Scotland to Bank of Scotland [when Dunbar’s RBS closed last year].

“I think it is plainly unfortunate to have a unit on High Street that is not operational five days a week.”