The future of charges for using cash machines was in the balance today after a campaign by the Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society.

A special meeting of members of the Link cash machine consortium was being held at Rudding Park, Follifoot, North Yorkshire, where a decision was expected on whether to press ahead with extra charges.

It was hoped the banks would back down after weeks of campaigning.

The meeting was being held only hours after Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers was urged to ban the charges by thousands of the Yorkshire Building Society's customers.

Mr Byers received a petition with 100,000 signatures from Yorkshire Building Society chief executive David Anderson signed by customers calling on him to oppose the charges.

The handover took place at the Department of Trade and Industry where Mr Anderson, supported by Bradford South Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe, urged Mr Byers to support the ban

And today, Paul Welsh, the Rooley Lane firm's spokesman on cash machine charges, was at the Rudding Park meeting urging fellow financial institution bosses to back down.

The Yorkshire Building Society has been a leading light in the fight against charges.

Mr Welsh said: "We have made our position very clear to people and we have been consistent with our position."

Big banks in the Link consortium want to introduce a new charge of up to £1 or more for people using a Link machine belonging to banks or building societies other than their own.

But the Yorkshire Building Society has contended that it only costs about 30p to process the withdrawals and that it is unfair to customers to try to profit from the transactions.

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