A COUNCIL leader has attacked Barclays bank for almost doubling its profits to £1.8bn while villages in the North-East suffer at the hands of the fat cats.

Councillor David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said yesterday he felt the big banks were not interested in the "little people" only their "mega corporate clients."

The bank, which has spent millions of pounds advertising its "big" image, announced yesterday that for the first half of the year, its profits were up £875m on the figures for the same time last year.

The announcement follows the closure of Barclays' 26 rural branches in the North-East and North Yorkshire, including those at St John's Chapel and Tow Law, in County Durham, and Skelton and Brotton, in East Cleveland.

Barclays believed the small branches had outlived their usefulness with more emphasis being placed on telephone and Internet banking.

But Coun Walsh said: "I think it is quite clear Barclays is only interested in mega banking for corporate clients. The little man or woman in places like Brotton and Marske mean little to them, and indeed, I suspect they're almost an embarrassment to them.

"It means communities have got to start building up financial services from the grass roots and possibly get involved in self-help schemes."

As well as the closures, the bank was also attacked earlier this year for its campaign to introduce charges for non-customers using its cash machines, on which it later backed down.

Barclays shook off the criticism yesterday and said it had gained new customers across all its businesses during the period.

Its figures were boosted by a £178m profit from the sale of its contract hire and fleet management business in June, while profits also increased from its mortgages, savings and consumer lending.

Both its corporate banking division and fund manager business Barclays Global Investors each saw a rise in profits of 18 per cent.

Profits from Barclaycard were flat at £195m.

Chief Executive of Barclays, Matthew Barrett, said: "The first six months saw good progress in the overhaul of everything we do for customers to achieve superiority in service quality and product proposition."

ech