The chain will close the doors of its Northallerton bank on May 6 as part of its plans to shut down 44 of its branches this year. Alongside the closure in Northallerton, Berwick-upon-Tweed's branch will close on April 28, and Bishop Auckland in County Durham will have its branch closed on May 5. Santander said closing branches will be replaced with “community bankers”, who will operate from Santander Local stores or banking hubs to keep a presence in local communities. It will also operate 19 counter-free branches, 36 reduced-hour branches, six work cafes and 111 Santander Locals. A spokeswoman for Santander said: “In response to a continuing and sizeable shift towards customers using digital banking, we are making changes to our branches to better support our customers.