Decision Day Approaches for Jobs in Chesterfield

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 25th Sep 2007

Chesterfield MP, Paul Holmes MP spent today (Tuesday 25th September) visiting the HMRC offices at Markham House and Dents Chamber. These offices have been provisionally selected by the Government for closure. It is expected that the final decision will be announced sometime between the 8th and the18th October.

Paul said "I met all the staff, both individually and in groups, at both offices. Everything they told me simply reinforced the case that I have made to Ministers in letters and in Parliament.

The problem is that Customs and Inland Revenue were formally two separate Government Departments so their staff were housed separately in Chesterfield. Now they are one, the staff from both offices are being told it is likely they will have to move to Sheffield.

I have seen for myself that there is plenty of room at Markham House to move all the Dents Chambers staff into one place and to cut the property bill.

Closing both offices and moving everything to Sheffield as the Government proposes would be bad for the staff, many of whom work part-time and have family or caring commitments. It would be bad for North Derbyshire's residents and the local economy, and especially bad for Chesterfield town centre. It would also be bad for the environment as staff and customers would have to travel in and out of over-congested Sheffield."

Paul stressed " We can only hope that the Government see sense and reconsider their badly thought-out proposals.

Concept House in Sheffield is already bursting at the seams, there are no adequate parking spaces and no park and ride on this side of the City. A decision is needed quickly as experienced staff are already leaving Chesterfield because of the uncertainty."