Crosfield letter to the press

10.04.06am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 6th Feb 2006

At a time when the Government are seeking to remove people from Incapacity Benefit, it seems extraordinary that the Labour-run Croydon Council has decided to close Crosfield sheltered workshop.

The employees at Crosfield make up almost half of Croydon council's entire disabled workforce. Yet the council has refused to delay the decision to at least enable the organisation to turn itself around and attract new business.

These people can and want to work, yet the council has starved them of resources and now claims it is uneconomic to keep open. Yet by neglecting investment they have helped produce this result.

The council claim that it is better for these people to work in mainstream employment but it is clear that these people will find it extremely difficult to find alternative employment. The proportion of disabled people in the council's own workforce is only 2% - now they're about to reduce it to closer to 1%.

Whilst the regeneration project for Waddon, including facilities for disabled people, is to be broadly welcomed, it will be a bitter irony to the workers of Crosfield when they have new facilities to use but no job to go to.

Croydon Lib Dems are committed to supporting Crosfield and working with the GMB union and other interested parties to find additional business.

At a time of rising unemployment and increasing Government pressure on people seeking to claim benefits, this decision is callous, illogical and short-sighted. It flies in the face of Government policy and threatens to consign a committed workforce to ignominy of the dole and the hardship of benefits too low to live on. The Labour Council is to be condemned.

Simon Hargrave

Croydon Lib Dems

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