Crisis prompts call to reopen job centre

The leader of Cannock Chase Council has called for the re-opening of Rugeley JobCentre in the wake of the latest unemployment figures.

It was revealed on Wednesday that the district saw the biggest increase in people claiming jobseekers' allowance in the West Midlands in January. Council leader Councillor Neil Stanley said that the council could do nothing on its own to stem the tide of rising unemployment. He called for central Government help for the district.

The area currently has 3,088 people 5.2 per cent of the working population claiming the allowance.

Councillor Stanley said that reopening the JobCentre in Sandy Lane on a temporary basis would be an important step.

His fellow Liberal Democrat councillor, Tony Williams, has been campaigning for the JobCentre to be restored.

Councillor Stanley said: "Reopening the JobCentre would provide help and advice for people who are out of work in that end of the district.

"It was closed at a time when the economy was doing much better."

Unemployed people from Rugeley now have to travel to either Cannock or Stafford to access the facilities on offer as they look for work and make applications to claim benefits.

The JobCentre closed five years ago in a shake-up by the Department for Work and Pensions which claimed there had been a fall in user numbers.

Councillor Williams is organising a petition for the Government to take action to get it back in use.

Councillor Stanley said that to create new jobs was a bigger challenge than the council could handle on its own. The council will also be talking to the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands to see what help it can offer.

He added that that the council's budget for 2010-2011 had involved only two redundancies.