Small business leaders have condemned plans to shut dozens of Barclays Bank branches this autumn.

The closures include the Newent branch of Barclays which shuts its doors on November 10.

Mike Cherry, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) national chairman, said: ""At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, the last thing small businesses need is loss of in-person bank branch support. When times are tough, there's no replacement for help from a known and trusted bank branch contact.

"Alternative Post Office services are simply not up to scratch - cash and cheque clearing facilities are limited and currency exchange services are rarely offered. We need to see substantial improvement and standardisation of the Post Office's offering if it's to be considered a viable replacement for bank branches.

"Our members routinely deal with customers that want to pay in cash. Once a town loses a bank branch it hurts footfall, particularly in tourist hotspots, and means business owners have to spend time travelling out of town to use banking services.

"Card payment terminals can go some way to mitigating these impacts but still carry multiple transaction costs which firms are forced to absorb.

Nationally the branch network of UK banks has halved in the last 25 years to just 8,000.