Last ditch call to save Dorset Enterprises (From Bournemouth Echo)

Last ditch call to save Dorset Enterprises

3:00pm Wednesday 23rd January 2013 in News

AN 11th hour bid is being made to save a disabled workers’ factory.

Last week members of a cabinet meeting at Bournemouth Council voted to close Dorset Enterprises and make 23 people redundant.

But Labour councillors Ben Grower and Dennis Gritt have called for a meeting to examine the reasons behind the decision and to consider other options.

Cllr Grower is hoping the special overview and scrutiny management committee today will see the matter referred back to the cabinet or full council to be reconsidered.

He said: “The recommendation put forward had never gone to other council members to look at and consider in any detail before the vote.

“But this is such an important decision about the closure of a factory that’s been going since 1914.”

Factory workers and union members arrived with placards to protest against the closure of the West Howe factory last week.

But councillors voted unanimously to shut it, citing a loss of more than £400,000 per year.

At tomorrow’s meeting the panel could refer the decision back to the cabinet or to a full council meeting.

Cllr Blair Crawford, cabinet member for adult social care, said he had hoped a way of keeping the factory open could be found but believed he had exhausted that option.

He said it had been “a very difficult decision” and said he wanted to see more disabled people working within “mainstream” businesses.

He said: “As portfolio holder I shall be very surprised if there’s any other element on the table but I shall be very pleased if there is.

“If people have something to put on the table then let’s hear it.”

If the scrutiny panel decide not to refer the decision back then the factory is due to close on March 31.