THE Mayor of Wellington has said that the ‘poor souls’ who are facing redundancy from the Swallowfield aerosols and cosmetics factory later this year will need a lot of support in finding new employment.

It was late last year when company owners KDC/One announced it wanted to transfer the business to Scotland, where it had recently bought Swallowfield competitor Barony Universal.

And, the devastating news for Wellington meant that the factory will close and around 260 local jobs will go.

Wellington Town Council was quick to offer its support to those people as soon as news broke of the impending closure of Swallowfield.

The mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, has been working with other agencies and speaking to employees who are facing up to an uncertain future about what to do next.

And she has now made a U-turn on her feelings toward giving the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) a subsidy for operating an outreach service in the council’s Kings Arms Community Hub on a fortnightly basis.

Cllr Lloyd, speaking at the council’s community committee meeting, said: “Having been at Swallowfield and speaking with the poor souls who are going to be made redundant, I have worked with some of the staff from the DWP.

“People are using DWP already, although they are not going to be made redundant until July 13.

“I think 56 people will go then and they will need a lot of help.

“A further 110 will go in December.”

The council’s community committee was asked back in January whether it should subsidise the DWP’s room hire charge at the Kings Arms Community Hub to the tune of £1,400 per year.

Cllr Lloyd, speaking at that meeting in January, said she was dead against it.

She said: “Why should we be subsidising the Government?

“They closed the Job Centre in Wellington – not us.”

But, fast forward two months to the community committee meeting and Cllr Lloyd said: “I think we should extend the DWP subsidy at the Kings Arms until the end of the year.”

Cllr Lloyd said at the full council meeting earlier this month that it was ‘very sad’ speaking with Swallowfield staff – many of whom had worked at the factory for years.

She said: “It is depressing going in there and speaking with the staff.”

“News of the closure came as a shock to the town, a shock to us at the council, and a shock to employees – it is very grim.

“The DWP is keen to help with its work in the hub and I would like to review the subsidy.”

Councillors agreed in January to initially approve subsidised access to the Kings Arms Community Hub for the DWP to be reviewed on a quarterly basis.

But, the mayor has changed her initial feelings on the DWP and realised that the Government Department will become very important to Wellington in the coming months and the pending Swallowfield redundancies as people look for new employment opportunities.