Arla bosses urged to rethink plans to close Settle factory
Staff, unions and politicians have urged a dairy manufacturer to think again over its plans to shut its North Yorkshire site.Arla announced proposals to close its base in Settle last month, with 128 jobs under threat as a result.A consultation meeting between union representatives, staff and politicians unanimously supported efforts to try and save the factory, with the area's Conservative MP Julian Smith describing the news as a "massive blow" to the town.Arla, which plans to move more of its operations to Lockerbie in Scotland, said it was consulting with staff affected by the closure.
A despatch operator at the factory, Dean Hird, said the news had been "devastating" for staff. He said: "It's not only me. I've been here for years, but my daughter recently started here as well, so it's bad news for the family really. "We all thought it was a job forever until we retired. Young people have got mortgages on the strength of it, so it's knocked everyone for six."Stuart Wiseman, a shift team leader, said: "I started here nine years ago and worked my way from the bottom up and Arla has been a really good employer. "I live about 20 minutes away so it's about looking at what the options are now, as a family."
A spokesperson for Arla said: "We are entering into a period of consultation with all colleagues affected by these proposals and it is our priority to fully support these colleagues through this difficult period."It said it would continue to engage with the GMB union and employee representatives.Smith, who represents Skipton and Ripon at Westminster, said those fighting the closure would continue to "present alternatives" to Arla, which is a co-operative."Arla and its predecessors have been in Settle for decades and they made a big investment in 2021, so it's both a huge shock and a massive blow."Settle offers a great location and a great workforce," the MP added.
Deanne Ferguson, GMB regional organiser, said union members had unanimously backed efforts to try to save the factory at the consultation meeting earlier."It's a community and a place which they love," she said."It's historically linked to generations of family, who face being uprooted and having to move elsewhere."North Yorkshire councillor for the area David Staveley said Arla leaving would have a major impact on the town."They will be sorely missed if they do go and that will have a ripple effect throughout the town."The facility here does attract various secondary, support industries for those to go would further compound the impact financially and economically on the area."A further two consultation meetings have been scheduled to take place in due course.
Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
3 hours ago
- South Wales Argus
Questions over council spending on Friars Walk Newport
The local authority negotiated a deal with the owners of Friars Walk in 2017 that would top up income if the centre was not collecting enough rent. Payments in each of the past six financial years have reached the maximum £500,000 – new figures seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service show. Cllr Matthew Evans, the leader of the Conservative opposition group, said he was 'absolutely staggered that the council has squandered over £3.56 million of local taxpayers' money on this'. A council spokesperson defended the deal and said the local authority would still benefit overall from the deal, even if the maximum £500,000 was paid out annually over the course of the 15-year deal. The council received £8 million when it signed the deal, and would be liable to pay a maximum of £7.5 million in top-ups, they explained. 'It is important to note that as well as the rental subsidy, the arrangement ensures that the council receives additional rent payments if the centre's profits exceed certain thresholds,' the spokesperson added. But Cllr Evans said the deal to top up low rents involved money which could be better spent on council services. 'Think how many additional social service staff could have been employed, or potholes fixed,' he said. 'I seem to recall when I questioned the decision taken by the cabinet at the time, I was told that it was merely 'an insurance policy' which would never be called on. 'Sadly the public have been picking up the tab for Labour's failure to regenerate the city centre. The reopening of the former Debenhams site is good news, but more needs to be done and fast.' A homeware store is reportedly set to open in part of the former Debenhams premises, which was described as the anchor tenant for the Friars Walk centre. Debenhams' high-street operations ceased in 2021 and the future of the large Newport site has been uncertain until the recent news of an incoming tenant. Michael Enea, a Conservative Party campaigner and political blogger, has urged the council to consider what he called 'huge' business rate charges for larger premises in the city centre. 'The former Debenhams site at £345,000 a year, the old Cineworld complex is £64,500 a year – these are astronomical figures,' he said. 'No wonder vast swathes of businesses have moved to out-of-town retail parks. We need a total review of business rates in Wales whereby it becomes an incentive to trade in our town and city centres. Something has to change.' The local authority spokesperson said Newport City Council is not responsible for setting business rates. 'We do, however, offer support for small and medium-sized city centre businesses through our local city centre rate relief scheme, which offers a discount of 25% on non-domestic rates for qualifying properties,' they explained. 'Very small businesses already receive rate relief through the Welsh Government's small business rate relief scheme. 'The Welsh Government also offers support for larger businesses through its retail, leisure and hospitality relief scheme, which offers a discount of 40 per cent on non- domestic rates, capped at £110,000 per business.'
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
Government struggles to cut foreign aid spent on asylum hotels
The government is struggling to cut the amount of foreign aid it spends on hotel bills for asylum seekers in the UK, the BBC has figures released quietly by ministers in recent days show the Home Office plans to spend £2.2bn of overseas development assistance (ODA) this financial year - that is only marginally less than the £2.3bn it spent in 2024/ money is largely used to cover the accommodation costs of thousands of asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the Home Office said it was committed to ending asylum hotels and was speeding up asylum decisions to save taxpayers' money. The figures were published on the Home Office website with no accompanying notification to aid is supposed to be spent alleviating poverty by providing humanitarian and development assistance under international rules, governments can spend some of their foreign aid budgets at home to support asylum seekers during the first year after their to the most recent Home Office figures, there are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels in the promised in its manifesto to "end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds". Contracts signed by the Conservative government in 2019 were expected to see £4.5bn of public cash paid to three companies to accommodate asylum seekers over a 10-year a report by spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) in May said that number was expected to be £15.3bn. On June 3, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Home Affairs Committee she was "concerned about the level of money" being spent on asylum seekers' accommodation and added: "We need to end asylum hotels altogether."The Home Office said it was trying to bear down on the numbers by reducing the time asylum seekers can appeal against decisions. It is also planning to introduce tighter financial eligibility checks to ensure only those without means are Whitehall officials and international charities have said the Home Office has no incentive to reduce ODA spending because the money does not come out of its scale of government aid spending on asylum hotels has meant huge cuts in UK support for humanitarian and development priorities across the cuts have been exacerbated by the government's reductions to the overall ODA budget. In February, Sir Keir Starmer said he would cut aid spending from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% by 2027 - a fall in absolute terms of about £14bn to some £ was the scale of aid spending on asylum hotels in recent years that the previous Conservative government gave the Foreign Office an extra £2bn to shore up its humanitarian commitments overseas. But Labour has refused to match that commitment. 'Poor value for money' Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy at the Bond network of development organisations, said: "Cutting the UK aid budget while using it to prop up Home Office costs is a reckless repeat of decisions taken by the previous Conservative government. "Diverting £2.2bn of UK aid to cover asylum accommodation in the UK is unsustainable, poor value for money, and comes at the expense of vital development and humanitarian programmes tackling the root causes of poverty, conflict and displacement. "It is essential that we support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, but the government should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul."Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, said the government was introducing "savage cuts" to its ODA spending, risking the UK's development priorities and international reputation, while "Home Office raids on the aid budget" had barely reduced."Aid is meant to help the poorest and most vulnerable across the world: to alleviate poverty, improve life chances and reduce the risk of conflict," she said. "Allowing the Home Office to spend it in the UK makes this task even harder.""The government must get a grip on spending aid in the UK," she said. "The Spending Review needs to finally draw a line under this perverse use of taxpayer money designed to keep everyone safe and prosperous in their own homes, not funding inappropriate, expensive accommodation here." Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour promised in their manifesto to end the use of asylum hotels for illegal immigrants. But the truth is there are now thousands more illegal migrants being housed in hotels under Labour. "Now these documents reveal that Labour are using foreign aid to pay for asylum hotel accommodation – yet another promise broken."A Home Office spokesperson said: "We inherited an asylum system under exceptional pressure, and continue to take action, restoring order, and reduce costs. This will ultimately reduce the amount of Official Development Assistance spent to support asylum seekers and refugees in the UK."We are immediately speeding up decisions and increasing returns so that we can end the use of hotels and save the taxpayer £4bn by 2026."
Powys County Times
13 hours ago
- Powys County Times
Fears Powys planners aren't going out to visit sites
CONCERN over the lack of site visits being conducted by members of Powys County Council's Planning committee ahead of deciding applications, has been flagged up with the Auditor General for Wales. Earlier today, (Friday – June 5) Montgomeryshire's Conservative MS Russell George met with the Auditor General for Wales Adrian Crompton and a team from Audit Wales to work through a list of concerns about the council's planning service. In April, Mr Russell wrote to Mr Crompton raising continued and serious concerns regarding the performance of the planning service. This follows the publication of two reports by Audit Wales on the council's planning service in the last two years. Following today's meeting Mr George MS said: 'The auditor general took on board my concerns and examples provided and will use what I outlined as part of a wider piece of work Audit Wales are undertaking around the governance and leadership of the council.' Mr George explained that they worked through a number of points that formed the basis of the meeting agenda and gave examples of planning issues that he has come across. Mr George said: 'We did spend some time on examples around missing and inaccurate information in reports going to committee. 'I also made the point on the lack of site visits by committee.' Interest in Mr George's concerns around planning in Powys was shown by members of the council's Governance and Audit committee last month. The committee chairwoman and lay-member Lynne Hamilton said that she will be expecting an update on the issue following the meeting. In May 2023 Audit Wales published a damning report into the state of Powys council's planning service and issued a number of recommendations for the council to address. In response, the council set up an internal board to help steer improvements in the service. Last November, Audit Wales issued a follow up report which said that 'overall' they had found that Powys planners had 'responded quickly' to improve its arrangements. Audit Wales said that the planning service has: 'implemented the 2023 recommendations in full.' Mr George believes that the follow-up review did not provide a 'comprehensive examination' of planning.
