WIREDGOV

PCS members fighting the closure of HM Revenue and Customs' offices in Scotland have set up on-line petitions in support of their campaign.

An office in Peterhead, where £25 billion worth of taxes from the Scottish fishing industry has been collected in the last five years, is one of many threatened with closure.

The closure would mean the loss of 10 jobs and has already been run down by the Department over the past decade meaning that it only has enough resources to cover the east coast of Scotland.

Therefore the £25 billion worth of tax that has been collected there comes from what is effecitvely just 50% of the Scottish fishing industry.

Mark Chapman, chair of the Aberdeen revenue branch said:

Where is the logic in closing an office that is so efficient and brings so much revenue in?

 

“The office costs very little to run. The staff are vastly experienced with an average of eighteen years service. Where is the logic in closing an office that is so efficient and brings so much revenue in?

"Peterhead is Europe’s largest whitefish port. If the work is moved elsewhere then the harbour front deterent is lost and the experience will be sunk without a trace.”

Meanwhile the HMRC office in Aberdeen is cutting staff by 150, meaning less than half will remain by 2011. This is leading to an already frustrated public being increasingly pointed in the direction of call centres rather than having access to local face to face services.

Staff in Aberdeen and Peterhead have been given the option of taking early severance or retirement packages or moving to the Glenrothes office which is three hours away.

Quality civil service jobs in the northeast of Scotland are already few and far between. Members that remain in the two offices cannot afford to retire or take a minuscule severance package.

Many say they enjoy their jobs and get satisfaction from knowing that what they do makes a positive to the local communities and the taxpaying population as a whole.

PCS members in this area have already lobbied Scottish Parliament and joined the UK-wide mass lobby in Westminster on 11 February.

Please support their campaign by signing the petitions.

• Stop the job losses in the Aberdeen tax office - sign the petition on the Downing Street website
• Save the Peterhead tax office from closure - sign the petition on the Downing Street website
• Hands Off Our Tax offices - find out more about the HOOT campaign