A SUDDEN announcement to shut Deal’s Job Centre will be taken up with the Secretary of State, Dover and & Deal's MP Gwyn Prosser has promised.

He said he was surprised to hear that local managers wanted to close down the centre and he would be doing everything in his power to resist the move.

He added: “The whole purpose of our local Jobcentres and Labour’s New Deal programmes are to remove the difficulties and barriers that people have to negotiate in getting back to work and to accessing benefits.

“The decision to shut down the Deal Centre and force people to travel all the way to Dover seems to fly in the face of Government policy and I am raising my concerns with the Secretary of State.”

“The decision to abandon Deal is made even more crass by the fact that our area is facing up to a thousand or more job losses and P&O Ferries have just started laying off the first of the 800 workers they have declared redundant”

“I am also concerned that these ill thought out plans seem to have been made without any prior consultation with my constituents or with the work force. There seems to be a serious mismatch between Government policy intentions and the heavy handed actions of local managers and I intend raising all of these matters in Parliament”

Deal Mayor Cllr Sue Delling said she was furious the closure decision was taken without any consultation in the town.