MOORE CALLS FOR BORDERS EMPLOYMENT SUMMIT AFTER FURTHER JOB LOSSES

12.00.00am GMT Mon 18th Jan 2010

Local MP Michael Moore is calling for an employment summit to be held in the Borders after further redundancies in the local manufacturing sector in recent weeks.

The Scotland Office has attended meetings in a number of areas of the country that have been hit by the recession, most recently in Glasgow where it was revealed that the Borders would miss out on £34 million of new EU funding that has been made available to support jobs and skills development programmes in Scotland.

Mr Moore has now written to the Scottish Secretary and challenged him to host a conference in the south of Scotland in light of the news that 175 additional manufacturing jobs are at risk after JJ and HB 1788 Cashmere Mill went into administration last week.

The plight of the Borders manufacturing industries was raised by Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Tavish Scott MSP last week during First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.

Commenting, Mr Moore said:

'Though the Borders has been hit as hard by the recession as many other areas of the country, it would seem that our companies have somehow found ourselves at the back of the queue for Government assistance.

'Given the number of redundancies that we have seen across our local economy in the past 18 months it is about time that Ministers started to take the difficulties that many Borderers have experienced as a result of the financial crisis seriously.

'An employment summit would be the first step towards helping those that have lost their job through no fault of their own to get back to work.'