Lulworth Camp is in a remote part of Dorset. It is a Ministry of Defence army barracks with around 2,600 troops through the camp, most of who have no cars and rely on public transport. There are also about 1,500 families and service personnel who are permanently on camp. The closest village is West Lulworth which has a population of around 700 people, and which is also a famous tourist spot as it is situated on the Jurassic coast. Access to cash was a real issue for the families that live on the camp and recruits who train there, with no onsite banking or ATM facilities.
Lulworth Camp piloted several solutions to support residents, including:
A new mobile Post Office which can support basic banking transactions. On Camp we put in a Post Office service, which supported basic banking services such as cash withdrawal and cash and cheque deposits. Camp residents could pay bills here, whether by cash or other means, and small businesses could order and collect floats. Residents and businesses on the camp can still use this service regardless of who they bank with.
ATM. We installed a free to use ATMs on Lulworth.
Guide to what banks can offer.
The banks offer a wide range of services that most people don’t know about. In fact, as we set up these pilots, we had requests for a lot of services – and found that many were already offered. We wrote a short guide to these services.