PORTMAN Building Society chiefs have told MP Michael Ancram they will not reconsider the decision to close their Pewsey branch.

The society announced in May that it intended to close the branch on August 3, provoking a storm of protest in the village. The Portman's part-time branch in Ramsbury is also to close.

This week Mr Ancram held talks with the society's chief executive Robert Sharpe, who three weeks ago replied to a letter from Pewsey Parish Council stating that the decision to shut the village branch was final.

He gave a similar assertion to the Devizes MP after what Mr Ancram called "a long, serious and somewhat angry conversation."

Mr Ancram said: "I set out very clearly to him the reasons for the very strong local resentment at the decision to close."

He said Mr Sharpe told him the use of the Pewsey office for savings and mortgages had declined and that it had been used increasingly for charge-free banking, which was not the role of the society.

Mr Ancram said: "I pointed out to him that many individuals and small local businesses would suffer and this was yet another blow to fragile local rural economies, which needed support rather than abandonment.

"I have to say that he was adamant that the decisions to close would not and could not be reversed."

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition protesting at the Pewsey closure. Protest leader Caroline Dalrymple said the Portman Action Group had been disappointed that the MP had not received a more positive response.