A CHURCH in a Bradford village has hit out at Barclays after a number of financial issues were caused after the bank closed its account.

Wilsden Trinity Church, a Local Ecumenical Partnership between the United Reformed and Methodist Churches in Bradford, had banked with Barclays for around 20 years.

However, 18 months ago the church treasurer began receiving what has been described as “threateningly-toned” letters from the bank to discuss the account.

Initially, the bank required information on the nature of the church’s activities and details about each trustee.

The information was sent to the bank by email and by post, and after it had been lost, the information was provided again, the church said.

After a fourth letter, the church believed everything was in order, however the bank sent a fifth letter in September, which arrived when the church treasurer was away in Australia.

Attempts were not made by the bank to contact the treasurer by phone or email, the church reports, and the account was subsequently closed as the bank did not receive a response.

In an open letter to Barclays, members of the Wilsden Trinity Church Meeting said: “Closing the account in this way has caused the church a number of significant problems.

“Many of our bills were paid by Direct Debit and many of our members paid money into the account through Standing Order.

“These have all stopped. In addition, we’ve been unable to bank the weekly collections or, ourselves, pay bills or send money to charities.”

This has caused the church to fall into debt.

The church claimed it had heard of other groups – including parish councils, community groups and a community garden – whose accounts have been closed or restricted by Barclays.

“We are in the process of opening a new account with a different bank, but this is taking some time and, at present, we do not have a bank account,” said members of Wilsden Trinity Church.

“There has been a financial cost to us and a cost in terms of our reputation and relationship with those who supply services and are paid by Direct Debit.”

The church submitted a complaint directly to Barclays’ complaints team in early October.

A spokesperson for Barclays said: “As part of our ongoing responsibility to help prevent financial crime, and to meet our regulatory obligations, we are required to keep up to date information regarding our customers’ accounts.

"We share a series of communications with our customers including writing to them by post, through alert banners on our digitally active customers’ online and mobile banking as well as reminder SMS text messages and emails asking customers to supply us with some important information relating to their Barclays Business account.

"In cases where we do not receive a response with up-to-date account information, we will proceed with the application of card blocks and account restrictions, ahead of issuing final closure arrangements.”