The Lord Mayor (Alderman W Byng Kenrick, JP), who was accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, members of the City Council, and others, on Saturday opened the 49th Branch of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, situated at the corner of Hobmoor Road and Fosbrook Road, Small Heath, on the recently developed Heybarnes Housing Estate.

 

The facilities provided at the Heybarnes Branch are identical with those afforded at the Small Heath Branch on Coventry Road, and the decision of the committee to erect bank premises on this particular site was made with a two-fold purpose in view. While it will undoubtedly relieve some of the pressure felt at Small Heath, it is hoped to enrol as depositors many residents in the immediate vicinity who hitherto have not had the opportunity of using a bank at a convenient distance.

 

Alderman Sir Percival Bower(Chairman of the Bank Committee), who presided, said the bank was a remarkable institution. Its successful development was far beyond anything the most sanguine or optimistic supporters had anticipated. It was meeting a real civic and social need, and its achievements had clearly demonstrated that it was serving the desired need. Its phenomenal success had quickened the determination on the part of those who opposed the enterprise at its inception, to see that there should be no extension of the powers which had been given to Birmingham. But extension was bound to follow. The tide of progress could not be swept ruthlessly aside.

 

The Lord Mayor, who was presented with a silver inkstand as a memento of the occasion, said that in Birmingham the Municipal Bank was pre-eminently a small householder's bank. It had captured the imagination and the confidence of the people as no other banking institution had done. The number of depositors now totalled 280,000; the amount standing to their credit was £10,275,000. The number of Home Safes in use was 38,500; the number of House Purchase Mortgages arranged 8,600; amount advanced on mortgages £2,900,000; number of mortgages in force, 6,000; amount outstanding on mortgage, £1,500,000.

 

A vote of thanks to the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress was accorded on the proposition of Councillor A E Ager. It was a long time since a Lord Mayor had visited Small Heath Ward to perform a civic function, said Mr Ager, and it was a great pleasure to welcome him and the Lady Mayoress. He commended the committee's action in providing a bank in that district, and pointed out that it was the first branch actually situated in Small Heath Ward, although in two cases, Coventry Road and Bordesley Green, it was only a question of residents who wished to deposit their money crossing the road from their ward.

 

The resolution was seconded by Councillor E W Salt and supported by Councillor H Johnson.