Shock as traffic agency jobs are shunted off to England

Published on Friday 19 August 2005 12:04

AROUND 20 jobs are to be axed from a Scottish traffic watchdog based in the Capital under plans to shift its office to England.

The job cuts have been announced at the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa) based at Argyle House in Lady Lawson Street.

The government employees, who carry out checks on goods and passenger vehicles to ensure road safety, were left shocked by the news.

Duties from the Scottish Traffic Area will be relocated to a Vosa office in Leeds under a radical shake-up which is expected to be completed by March next year.

Union bosses today condemned the move after claiming they were kept out of discussions over the plans.

Vosa chief executive Stephen Tetlow has already received a formal complaint from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) alleging that civil service redundancy procedures were violated.

But the agency refused to confirm that jobs would be shed at the Edinburgh office when contacted by the Evening News today. Staff have attacked the closure, claiming that Scotland was "being treated like a rural backwater" and that services to drivers would suffer.

It is understood that 24 posts will be lost across six Vosa offices in the UK, with most coming from the Scottish Traffic Area section.

City staff were told that relocating to Leeds was not an option as employees down south are expected to take on their workload through new technology.

They were told the changes were designed to improve the organisation and provide greater value for money.

No compensation packages have been put on the table so far. It is thought managers will gauge the numbers interested in redundancy before making any offers.

It is believed that a skeleton staff could be maintained at Argyle House to deal with public inquiries under the direction of the Traffic Commissioner or Deputy Traffic Commissioner for Scotland.

The Scottish Traffic Area office currently handles the licensing of goods and passenger vehicles to ensure they meet government standards.

Staff also deal with issues such as drivers' convictions and conduct, and tachograph offences.

One Argyle House worker, who asked not to be named, said: "All members of staff are demoralised and feel that a question and answer session set up to deal with staff concerns was a whitewash.

"The only explanation for Leeds as a power base was the size of the building. No other rationale was offered.

"Staff are concerned that Scottish operators will not get the standard of service provided at Argyle House, where operators can visit the public counter for advice and assistance or to pay for or renew their licence.

"They also feel that Scotland was left out of the loop in the consultation process."

The announcement about the closure was made on August 3 by senior staff, who read out a memo from Leeds-based licensing director Bill Buckley.

A spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services Union said: "This is bad news for the staff in Edinburgh and runs contrary to the government policy of not relocating jobs to the south-east.

"We are extremely concerned about the lack of consultation over this and we have expressed our concerns in the strongest possible terms to management."

A spokeswoman for Vosa would not comment on staff issues.

She added: "Vosa is entering a period of restructuring that will deliver the value for money targets identified by CEO Stephen Tetlow earlier in the year. The Traffic Area Offices are included in this restructuring exercise.

"There will be centralisation of some administration as well as expansion of existing e-services, that will free up resources to increase frontline services to deliver improved road safety."