Dursley Jobcentre to close (From Gazette Series)

Dursley Jobcentre to close

PLANS to close Dursley Jobcentre have been met with anger from two Gloucestershire county councillors.

Geoff Wheeler (Dursley) and Margaret Nolder (Cam) have joined forces to object to the plan, announced by the Regional Jobcentre Plus this week.

Closure of the Parsonage Street office would force job-seekers to travel to Gloucester, Stroud or Yate.

"This takes no regard of the current situation around Cam and Dursley." said Cllr Wheeler.

"We have about 600 new jobs going on the Littlecombe site, extra jobs with the supermarket and about 750 houses over the next few years with people who may be looking for jobs.

"dd that to the recently announced redundancies at the British Nuclear Group site at Berkeley and it seems absolutely crazy to contemplate the closure of our Jobcentre."

Cllr Nolder added: "How do they expect someone who is unemployed to afford to get to Stroud, Gloucester or Yate? And how will someone manage if they work locally and want to pop into the Jobcentre to look at other situations?

"This makes no sense at all and we need to do everything we can to stop this closure from taking place. We also need to know who has been consulted - local authorities and employers, for instance."

Stroud MP David Drew has asked for an urgent meeting with the district manager and an explanation of the proposed closure.

He said: "There seems to be no understanding of the local situation. Many people going to the Jobcentre will not have their own transport and this will increase the sense of isolation in our more rural areas."

Both Dursley and Cam councils meet next week and will be certain to want to comment.

Mary Dowling, spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions in the South-West, said: "Under plans for Jobcentre Plus roll-out in Gloucestershire, Dursley Jobcentre has been identified for closure at a point in the future. A final date has not yet been decided.

"This decision has been made after consideration of many factors including the current and projected customer usage of the office, the proximity of alternative Jobcentre Plus offices in the area, the cost of converting the office to provide the new Jobcentre Plus services, the resources needed to maintain the office in the future, and the need to provide the best possible service to all our customers in the county.

"The Jobcentre Plus services will be available from the neighbouring offices in Gloucester, Stroud and Yate, and nearer the time customers will be given the opportunity to indicate which of those offices they would prefer to use in future.

"We will also be delivering many of our services through telephone and Internet facilities to complement our face-to-face service. In fact, we are confident that our customers will experience a faster, more efficient service as a result of the changes, in a more modern, welcoming environment."

She added: "The number of staff affected by the closure is not finalised but we will try to maintain employment for as many staff as possible but cannot guarantee that there will be no redundancies.

"Compulsory redundancy, however, will be a last resort and will only take place after all other options have been considered, such as early releases and redeployment."