Prescott's Battle Bus - a cheesy story unfolds

DATE: Wednesday 20th April LOCATION: Worcester, Redditch, Wolverhampton, Leek
Looking through the file on the Humberside Heavyweights grand tour I found an interesting story of busines success and an all too familiar tale of recruting staff with the right skills.....

"To round off the day, the Deputy Prime Minister visited the Kerrygold Cheese Factory in Leek. Joined by Charlotte Atkins, Labour’s candidate for Staffordshire Moorlands, John saw the production line in action.

The factory is extremely successful, but this has led to a skills shortage. John was keen to point out that Labour has committed itself to a significant rise in the quality and quantity of apprenticeships and vocational training.

In a story on BBC ONline November 22nd 2005 (just before Chrustmas) when the factory announced a 90 day closure order the company said,"The firm, which has launched a 90-day consultation, said it was under threat from significant over-capacity in the cheese packing sector across the UK."

BBC Online had a fascinating story 2 weeks ago .....
Cheese factory in grant row shuts

More than 100 staff at a cheese-packing plant have been made redundant after the factory closed, as calls continue for the owners to repay public money.

The Dairygold factory at Felinfach in the beautiful Aeron Valley, near Lampeter, has shut with the loss of 115 jobs. Politicians have called for the repayment of a £663,000 assembly government grant in 2002 to help buy machinery and safeguard jobs.

The Irish-owned company, (The Irish Dairy Board - in effect the Irish Government) which set up in Felinfach S.Wales, with a £1.2m grant in 2001, blamed the "harsh realities of the marketplace" for the closure.

An investigation by the BBC Radio Cymru programme Manylu found the machinery bought with the grant had been sold on to the Kerrygold company, which is part-owned by Dairygold, and is being moved on to its packing facility in Leek, Staffordshire.

According to a statement from the Welsh Assembly Government, officials were unaware that the packing lines had been sold on to Kerrygold, and that both companies were closely connected.

So a foreign owned factory that was "extremely successful" with a "skills shortage" in Staffordshire buys from it's closing sister company, equipment that was bought with grant which they are moving lock stock and barrel and letting go over 100 staff in the unemployment blackspot in the Welsh Valleys.

Lib Dem MP for Ceredigion Mark Williams should perhaps have a word with the Deputy Prime Minister to see whatNew Labour can offer in the way of "quality and quantity of apprenticeships and vocational training" and how it might help the 100 odd residents of the remote rural Aeron Valley find a job, now it, and the machinery they used that was paid for by the taxpayer has been moved to Leek.

He did ask Peter Hain during Welsh Questions on Budget Day "I should like to know what message he has for the 100 constituents of mine who have lost their jobs at Dairygold in Felinfach. There is a possibility of 40 more job losses at Iger near Aberystwyth. Does he accept that job losses on that scale in a rural economy have a disproportionate effect on the immediate locality?"

To which the Man with the tan from the can who desperately wants Tony's job said very unhelpfully, "There are 118,000 more people in work in Wales, business is doing better than anybody can remember and the economy in Wales is stronger than anybody can recall, including in his part of the world. Inevitably, there is a churn of jobs, but job opportunities will increasingly be found for everybody."

So that's alright then. Money spent getting jobs in rural Wales helps develop industry in urban Staffordshire.