Signing on
A PETITION to save Bo'ness Jobcentre has attracted more than 3,000 signatures.
Since launching the campaign, Falkirk East MP Michael Connarty has canvassed support for retention of the North Street office which regional Department of Work and Pensions bosses want to close.
Mr Connarty met with Works and Pensions Minister Alan Johnston MP as he sought to find out what was behind the closure threat first reported in the Journal on September 24.
He has also spoken to representatives of the Public and Commercial Services Union.
After meeting with Mr Johnston, Mr Connarty confirmed that projected closures, which also affect Denny and Alloa Jobcentres, were not handed down from ministerial level but had been flagged up by local management keen to cut costs.
Mr Connarty is still working to persuade Department of Work and Pensions bosses that the Bo'ness closure is not a good idea given the wide geographic area it serves.
And he has learned in the last few days that bosses may be prepared to backtrack since there is now a suggestion that some form of Jobcentre service will be retained in the town.
The Falkirk East Westmin-ster MP said: "I have been able to confirm that the closures were not handed down from the Minister but have come from suggestions by district managers.
"I also understand that there's a bit of flexibility — and I'm still hopeful that we will be able to retain the service in Bo'ness."
Mr Connarty said he understood that all of the Bo'ness Jobcentre staff were keen to remain in Bo'ness although staff in other offices affected by the proposed closures were prepared to move.
The latest estimates are that 75 civil service jobs will be transferred from the Falkirk area to a new claims processing centre at Coatbridge.
But it is still unclear just how many jobs actually be lost as a result of the projected changes.
Another 94 civil service jobs — from the Child Support Agency in Falkirk — are to go in the New Year. Mr Connarty has even spoken to Falkirk District Town Centre Management bosses in the hope that a joint tenancy of the Jobcentre premises could be arranged.
Such a move would cut running costs for the DWP in Bo'ness.
SNP activists in Bo'ness — whom Mr Connarty has urged to be more vocal in their support for the Jobcentre service — have condemned Mr Connarty's actions saying it is ''to little, to late".
They continue to insist that hundreds of local employees will be thrown on the dole as a result of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's spring announcement that the civil service is to be drastically slimmed down.
* Letters, page 12
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Weather for Linlithgow
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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Wind direction: North east
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Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
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Wind direction: North east
