23 Mar 2009
Thanks to the government's decision to close Feltham job centre nearly 1,000 unemployed people living in Feltham will now be forced to travel three miles into Hounslow town centre to register and get help in finding work.
To add insult to injury all of them have been informed that they will receive no assistance with the travel costs of the extra three mile journey they will have to make.
At this time of recession and increasing unemployment it is difficult to see any circumstances which would justify closing Feltham job centre; nor to understand how people without jobs and relying on state benefits can be expected to spend money on travel that would be much better used to pay for food and clothes for their families.
In the past three months over 800 more borough residents have been made redundant through no fault of their own. It is, to say the least, difficult to see how the single job centre left can support these and other residents unfortunate enough to lose their jobs with finding new work.
The decision to close Feltham job centre was taken before the recession was officially announced and I have asked the government minister responsible, James Purnell, to reverse its closure!
Cllr Peter Thompson
Leader
London Borough of Hounslow
