Staff protest at jobs move

It has emerged the planning office in Craigavon will bear the brunt of the looming job cuts.

In total 58 members of staff at Marlborough House are facing redeployment while the figures for Downpatrick (35), Londonderry (27), Omagh (44) and Ballymena (36) are considerably less. Only at headquarters in Belfast, where 71 staff will be affected, does the Planning Service plan a bigger cut than in Craigavon.

271 personnel in total are to be cut in planning offices across Northern Ireland.

Employees in Craigavon walked out on April 29 in protest at the cuts. Staff at Marlborough House have put their weight behind an ongoing campaign by union NIPSA to highlight what they believe will be the harm caused by this decision.

The protests follow the refusal by the Department of Finance and Personnel to make up the shortfall in funding from planning fees received following the economic downturn.

As a result, Planning Service has announced that over a third of its staff complement will have to be redeployed outside the agency. If they can’t find other posts they could be made redundant.

According to NIPSA if these cuts are implemented planning staff here will have unprecedented caseloads which will have a huge adverse impact on the economy given the current economic crisis particularly in the construction industry.