Eleventh-hour bid to save Remploy

Oldham Council meeeting
COUNCILLORS will continue their fight to save Oldham’s Remploy in London with an 11th hour trip to London.

A delegation will meet a government minister for the disabled on April 30.

The Ashton Road company, which employs 115 staff, is due to close in August as part of the latest round of closures affecting Remploy across the country.

Councillors want an 18-month reprieve to allow time to find a way to save the local factory.

Councillor Mark Alcock said it gave work to 107 people who had disabilities or conditions that made it difficult for them to find mainstream jobs.

Protests against plans to close the Oldham factory brought support from across the chamber.

Councillor Peter Dean said: “We need to say to the minister that those people want to work and don’t want to be subsidised.

“This is the last-chance saloon for Remploy in Oldham. We don’t want it to go.”


The full version of this story can be seen in our print and eChron editions