“KEEP DWP JOBS IN MERTHYR TYDFIL” SAY LOCAL POLITICIANS
Gerald Jones MP and Dawn Bowden AM have repeated the call for the Department of Work and Pensions to keep jobs in Merthyr Tydfil rather than move them to the Treforest Industrial estate. Today (Friday 19th January) they joined members of the PCS union to consider the implications of travel arrangements to the proposed new site.
Dawn Bowden AM said “Some of the staff in the DWP office in Merthyr live in Brecon so we joined them on the bus journey at 6.30am to see for ourselves the change in the travel arrangements. The journey from Brecon to Merthyr was fine and under current arrangements staff can be at their desks in just over half an hour. We then took the train from Merthyr Tydfil to the Treforest industrial estate which many DWP staff from Merthyr would do if the office moves. This was a totally different story. The arrival station was not suitable, especially for anyone with mobility issues. We then had to walk from the station down a dark, slippy path and walk for some 15 minutes before reaching the proposed new office site. This plainly made no sense and I fear would drive even more people in to their cars on a busy stretch of the A470”.
Gerald Jones MP said “The 275 or so DWP jobs in the centre of Merthyr Tydfil are important to the town. They help support the local economy as people spend in the shops and on local services. Moving them to an industrial estate down the valley makes no sense. The Welsh Government are continuing to build Merthyr Tydfil as an economic hub in the valleys but the UK Department of Work and Pensions moving jobs out of the town would weaken that cause. This is a fight for jobs that we are taking forwards in Westminster and with Assembly colleagues. So we were happy to join the PCS union in once again asking the DWP to reconsider this decision and in the same process they would help their own staff in their journey to work”.