Residents fighting to stop their village being used as a "24-hour drive-through bank" are hoping to hammer out a deal when they meet top bosses from banking's Big Four in York tomorrow.

Villagers in Heslington want to put an end to the late-night noise and disturbance they experience from a constant stream of cashpoint customers driving into the village to use any of the four cash points in Main Street.

They are asking the banks to join in an experimental night-time shutdown of cashpoints to end their misery.

Senior executives from Lloyds TSB, NatWest, Barclays and HSBC, will face representatives from Heslington Parish Council and Heslington Village Trust for talks at York Mansion House.

HSBC, formerly Midland Bank, gave villagers a foothold last year when area manager Maureen Loffill offered to trial a unique experimental night-time shutdown of the bank's Heslington cashpoint.

A village delegation, led by Selby MP John Grogan, then headed south to lobby the other banks at their London HQs and tomorrow's meeting is the result.

The Lord Mayor of York, Coun Peter Vaughan, is hosting the talks, which will be chaired by Roy Templeman, the council's director of development and environment.

Also at the table will be the University of York's vice-chancellor, Professor Ron Cooke.

Mr Grogan, who set up the meeting, said: "This is a great step forward and I am delighted that we have all four banks coming to the meeting.

"They are going to be looking at designing an experiment to close their cash machines in Heslington during night time.

"I am very hopeful that we will get a positive outcome for the people of Heslington."

Village trust chairman Nick Allen said: "The late-night cashpoint users are in their cars anyway. There are cash machines a short distance away they can use without disturbing local people's sleep.

"Compared with the endless disturbed nights for the residents, this will be a minor inconvenience."

Heslington Parish Council chairman Valerie Foote said: "City of York Council's high-level involvement in the meeting shows how seriously the city takes its policy of Residents First."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.