Holmes Delighted at Government Climbdown on HMRC Office Closures

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 17th Oct 2007

Chesterfield MP Paul Holmes has given a delighted reaction to today's news that the Government have backed down over their badly thought out plans to close both HMRC offices in Chesterfield.

Paul said, "along with local staff and trade union representatives I worked hard to lobby the Government to change its mind. Staff accepted the common sense need to save money by merging office accommodation once the separate Customs and Tax departments became one department. That's why staff immediately said that it was feasible to move one group of workers from Dents Chambers into the spare accommodation at Markham House -the solution now at last adopted by the Government."

"After months of agonising delay the Government have accepted that their original plan to close down all operations in Chesterfield and make staff and customers travel the congested roads into Sheffield was a nonsense. Part time staff with family caring responsibilities would have had to give up work. Travel times to work would have grown massively and more car journeys on congested roads would have increased pollution levels. Customers in Derbyshire would have received an inferior service having to travel out of the County or rely on call centres."

"The Government climbdown is good news for all concerned -staff, customers and taxpayers. It's good news too for Chesterfield which will not now be losing local jobs and for shopkeepers and market traders who will not be losing customers from the town centre office staff. If the Government had consulted with staff in the first place instead of trying to micromanage everything from London this traumatic year could have been avoided"

"Uncertainty still remains however as to exactly how many jobs will be transferred from Dents Chamber to Markham House and how many staff may yet have to switch from Chesterfield to Sheffield. I have written to the HMRC and the Minister seeking clarification on this as soon as possible."