I imagine a lot of us have noticed just how many barbers, hairdressers, nail bars and coffee bars there are in Farnham.   

My hunch is you can’t carry out any of these activities on what I enjoy calling the Stinkernet, distanced and remote – you have to do them live, face to face, hand to hand or back of the head to scissors.

They all answer to our deep need for personal contact and are the channels we have devised to make sure we get it. The message is people matter.

So when yet another bank announces it is closing – Lloyds is the latest – even those who cope, and more than cope, with the isolating digital technology we have imposed on us may well have felt a sinking of the heart at the corporate greed of big firms across the piste, who are forcing this isolation on us at least as much as we are choosing it. 

What option do we have but to dance to their money-grubbing tune at the moment?

Parallel with this, I imagine an equally large lot of us will have noticed how many months have passed without Crest managing to inform us who its promised Brightwells tenants will be. The scheme is clearly struggling, as usual and as ever.

Here’s an idea. Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone. How about installing a banking hub, made up of all the main banks, situated at the heart of the scheme?

At a stroke, it would assuage anger and resentment, answer a clear and even pressing need, and be a creative way of bringing custom, life and footfall to an area that will require every ounce of our support and ingenuity if we are to rescue it.

I dare say reasons will be found why not, but it seems to me this could be win-win. Am I right?

David Wylde

St James’ Terrace, Farnham