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September 1, 2010 -- A DEVELOPMENT agency fighting to save 52 Barrow jobs believes the town’s geographical remoteness figured in BT’s decision to shut a directory inquiries centre.


The 118 500 centre in the telephone exchange next to Barrow railway station is being shut in January, despite having survived two previous attempts to close it.

Each previous time, the hard work and professionalism of the Barrow staff was cited as a reason for it escaping the axe.

Now, Furness Enterprise officials have written to ask BT chairman Ian Livingston to explain why it is shutting the Abbey Road centre.

In the letter to Mr Livingston, Furness Enterprise says: "The hard work and productivity of local employees, working in an area which is not exactly rich in alternative employment, does not appear to have been considered at all. With respect, it leaves us with a feeling that the Barrow operation is being shut because the remoteness of its location meant it could be done with minimal effect on BT’s image." FE’s chief executive, Harry Knowles, wrote: "We know from previous discussions that the Barrow centre has always provided a first-class service.

This suggests that at least, realistic alternative employment should be actively investigated."

The Fe letter says that working with community, political, business and union representatives, it wants to meet "the appropriate senior BT representatives to see what can be done to rescind this decision or bring alternative work to this deprived area."

BT has denied that Barrow’s geographical position affected its decision.

A spokeswoman for BT said: "The whole directory enquiries industry, though still substantial and strong, is affected by a long-term trend of declining call volumes, stretching back well over 10 years, as it becomes easier for people to find numbers in other ways, such as the internet."

The CWU locally claimed another reason was BT did not want to go to the expense of putting the latest 21CN fibre optic broadband technology into Barrow.

A BT spokesman told the Evening Mail: "21CN is currently not available in Barrow, however this only played a minor part in the decision to close the DQ centre." The CWU has launched a campaign complete with a Facebook page to keep the centre open and the union has issued BT an ultimatum to come up with a solution to keep the jobs by October 8.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.nwemail.co.uk

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BT is provider of communications services and solutions for everybody in the UK and for corporate customers in the rest of Europe, with global reach through partnerships. BT provides services for all UK customers, network services and solutions for communication companies, worldwide business solutions, internet services, and advanced research and technology.