The departure of a banking giant from Whitehaven town centre has been described as a "big shame".

HSBC has announced it is closing the doors of its Whitehaven branch along with 68 others across the country.

Now concerns have been raised that the building on Lowther Street will stand empty like the former post office next door.

The community was in shock when a massive cannabis farm was discovered in the vacant building in May 2020, after the post office service was moved into W H Smith on King Street.

Graham Roberts, who is on the county council's local committee for Copeland, said: "It's a big shame. I think HSBC are wanting to move to digital banking. I think it's the way forward now.

"A lot of older people can't manage to get online. They are going to struggle with this.

"I think it's worrying because we are going to end up with a town of empty buildings. Once that starts happening entrepreneurs are going to say, 'we are not going to go there because the place is on the way down'. Somehow, we have to reverse that trend."

Cllr Roberts hopes the HSBC building will be put to good use, rather than standing empty and attracting crime.

He said: "There's a lot of floor space in those two buildings. The misuse of any building, you have got to be vigilant to make sure it doesn't happen because things like that are not wanted. We have got other priorities other than stupidity like that."

One Lowther Street business owner thinks the building would make ideal office or residential space.

Gerard Richardson MBE, who owns Richardsons of Whitehaven, a wine and coffee merchants, said: "First of all, its really sad for the staff, many of whom have worked in the town for years.

"It's also next door to the old post office which has stood empty for years now, but instead of creating a problematic block of large unused buildings on the main street in the town, this could be turned to our advantage.

"Several years ago, I floated the idea of buying up some of the problematic buildings on King Street and using Sellafield investment to convert the upper problematic floors into office or residential spaces.

"The idea also had the bonus of bigger businesses being on hand to offer mentoring to the new retailers in the space below them. The idea didn't get much traction despite local politicians being in favour.

"These two buildings are a little different from the ones I was looking at on King Street but they would still make really good office conversions, particularly as they both have some limited town centre car parking to the rear.

"To be honest, the whole of the space could be used for offices, including the frontages, but how great would it be if Sellafield and the companies with the long term Programme and Project Partners contracts could take the upper space and convert the Lowther Street ground floor frontage into a public exhibition space.

"There's a need right now to promote the GDF proposal to the public and these prominent buildings on Lowther Street would make a fantastic space to do that.

"This sort of scheme could turn a business tragedy into a real boost for the whole town. Hopefully the powers that be will give this some serious thought."

HSBC Whitehaven is due to close on September 22.