Gazette comment (From Gazette Series)

Gazette comment

THE PEOPLE of Cam and Dursley need few reminders about how many jobs have disappeared from the area over the last decade or so.

However, it seems that the Department of Work and Pensions is determined to give the town a lasting legacy to its plight by closing the Jobcentre.

As if the job losses from Lister Petter, Bymacks and other firms over the years were not enough, the very place that is supposed to get people back to work is itself trying to hand its staff their P45s.

Has it really reached the point where so many jobs have been lost from the town that there is not anything to advertise any more? What about the Littlecombe site potential? What about redevelopment at Berkeley nuclear site? It is a curious time to opt for closure

In an area with such limited transport links it also shows a complete lack of understanding to think that closing the Dursley branch is okay because there are others nearby (?) in Gloucester, Stroud and Yate.

Those offices may offer Jobcentre Plus facilities, whatever they are, but it is the Jobcentre Minus in Dursley that will create the burden on the unemployed just to get to one of the others.