My nearest cash machine is about 2KM away. If the free machine is only a thousand metres away, what is the problem?

Edit: when I was a teen, I'd have to walk about 2 miles to get to my bank, which was the only building in the town with a cash machine I could use (that was before Link).

I think that the point is that poorer areas also have no banks at all. Over the last few years there are large parts of the country with no banks of any kind. It undermines the prospects for the entire community as local businesses cannot bank their takings either. So the entire area becomes blighted.

Any fairly civilised are will have a bank fairly close. If you live in the middle of nowhere then you can't expect a bank nearby.
Banks & "free" cashpoints cost money to run, if they're only being used to withdraw benefits etc they make no sense to run.

So parts of the country are not civilised? Yes but post offices have closed as well.