Local campaigners have prompted a U-turn from Barnet Council - and saved a popular cash machine from closure.

The free-to-use machine, in Mays Lane, had been at risk since the start of the year, after Barnet Council announced plans to force its closure.

In April, after the intervention of a local councillor, Cllr Anita Campbell, the cash machine - located in Forbuoys newsagents - was given a temporary reprieve. Now the Council has confirmed that the machine - which local residents use 5,000 times per month - can stay permanently in place.

Barnet Council's decision is being warmly welcomed by Ron Delnevo, Managing Director of Bank Machine - the company that installed and operated the ATM (Automated Teller Machine), and took part in the lengthy campaign against its closure:

"I must congratulate the Council. Local authorities are often reluctant to review their original decisions - let alone reverse them. But Barnet has been brave enough to do exactly that.

I'd also like to thank all the local residents - and of course especially Cllr Campbell - who have lobbied Barnet Council so successfully.

It's a triumph for people power, and a victory for common sense."

The Council originally decided to require the machine's closure after the Police advised that it might generate crime in the local area - which they already regarded as a crime hot spot. In fact, thanks in part to the security measures implemented by Bank Machine as part of the installation process, local crime figures began falling - not rising - after the machine came into use.

The ATM soon helped to attract extra customers to local shops, while its closure would have forced local residents to travel over half a mile to the nearest alternative cash machine instead - creating generating unnecessary car journeys and extra emissions in the process.

Background information

1. Bank Machine created the UK's independent ATM market ten years ago and now has 2,500 cash machines in locations that include cinemas, garage forecourts and retail outlets - ranging from Selfridges to convenience stores.

2. It began by installing pay-to-use cash machines in convenient locations but has since built a free-to-use network - which already includes over 500 ATMs located in, for example, NHS hospitals, military bases and low-income areas.

3. Bank Machine - a division of Cardtronics Inc., the Worlds largest ATM operator with over 31,000 machines - has around 100 staff in the UK.

4. For more information about Bank Machine, please visit its website (www.bankmachine.com) or contact Quintus's Fran Cooke (020 7340 6260 / fran@quintuspa.com).