Battle plan to tackle jobs crisis

A recession-hit Black Country borough today launched a battle plan to help families get through the recession.

Walsall's problems are typical of those being experienced by towns across the West Midlands, especially in areas where there is a mixture of traditional manufacturing and new call centre jobs.

Around 1,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the credit crunch at the end of 2008 in Walsall alone. Many thousands went in other parts of the West Midlands as recruitment agency Manpower recently labelled the region as the most vulnerable to redundancies.

In Walsall, Wagon Automotive made the biggest job cut before Christmas after closing its Pelsall Road site in Brownhills leaving 292 people without work.

Parcel freight company Amtrak also shut its Northgate Way, Aldridge, site forcing 230 people out. The decline of Woolworths saw the town's Park Street store shut with 38 jobs lost and the Bloxwich store shuts tomorrow with more jobs lost.

And as the New Year begins many more workers are biting their fingernails over their futures including those at Walsall's biggest employer Homeserve which has warned of cuts, as has Walsall Council.

Councillor Ian Shires, an independent financial advisor, said contingency plans were to be drawn up at the borough's Local Neighbourhood Panel meetings as a matter of urgency in the first few weeks of January.

Proposals include setting up one stop advice centres around the borough and community enterprise schemes to help support the local economy.

The Willenhall Liberal Democrat councillor said the Civic Centre in Walsall Town Centre was the sole point of help and there needed to be One Stop advice centres set up around Walsall for people to call in for help.

He said: "It was an idea that was around a few years ago but never happened. It is not convenient for a lot of people to have to come all the way into the town to the Civic Centre to speak to someone."