Survey seeks tick for bank

Kim Waters
PLANS for a Barwon Heads community bank are in the hands of residents, according to a steering committee spokesperson.
Chris Bryan said independent consultants had surveyed 50 of the town’s business community last week, finding “plenty of positive support” for the project.
“The step we’re at right now is waiting for the results of 2500 surveys sent to residents but, as far as local businesses are concerned, it’s a really exciting proposal,” Mr Bryan said.
“We really need everyone who received one of the surveys to take 10 minutes to fill it out and then post it back. This is the final tick off and once we get all the data returned our independent consultants will decide how viable the proposal is.”
Mr Bryan said the committee had smashed its target capital of $750,000.
“We’ve kept pushing over the last year to get that start-up capital, which will get us off the ground,” he said.
“We managed to raise over $830,000 for the project, which is really exciting.”
Mr Bryan said the committee would wait for final survey results before deciding on a branch location.
“We have a couple of ideas about where the branch will be and we’re really hoping to have it up and running later next year.”