Last week all eyes were on Cumbernauld after it emerged that the dream which brought financial services giant Morgan Stanley to the town had died - just weeks after Barclaycard bought over the Goldfish credit card business.

Barclays announced a three month consultation exercise with the workforce over proposals to absorb the business at Cumbernauld into their centres at Northampton, Kirby and on Tyneside where there is extra capacity. Some staff may relocate to these centres or to the bank's Glasgow operation. Others face the prospect of redundancy.

The News has been looking into the hefty cash incentives which served to lure Morgan Stanley to Cumbenauld in what was one of the biggest inward investment projects in Scotland for many years.

Not only did this include the £20 million investment in the 75,000 square foot state-of-the-art construction in the Orchardton Wood headquarters paid for by the company itself but tempting cash incentives came from elsewhere.

They total more than £7 million - £6 million from the Scottish Executive's Regional Selective Assistance Fund, and the remainder from the now defunct Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire. North Lanarkshire Council also stumped up £400,000.

Although it is being stressed that the company met the terms of the grant at the time, questions are now being asked about how this investment could continue to serve Cumbernauld as a damage limitation exercise swings into play.
Two of the area's MSPs have written to Enterprise Minister Jim Mather in the hope that the money can be re-harnessed to fund further investment in the town.

They include Cumbernauld & Kilsyth constituency MSP Cathie Craigie who said: "A considerable amount of taxpayers' money was invested to originally attract Morgan Stanley to the area. I want to know whether there is any hope of recovering this money.

"Over 900 people in the local area are directly affected by Barclaycard's proposals, but these job losses will also have a much wider impact on our community.

"Barclays Wealth opened a facility in Glasgow with the promise of just over 200 jobs in November, but the workforce in Cumbernauld has not been guaranteed any of the positions. I will be doing everything I can as the local MSP to protect jobs because it is vital for local families that these jobs are kept in Cumbernauld.

"If Barclaycard can't be persuaded that it would be in their interest to remain in Cumbernauld, the Scottish Government has a responsibility to find another company to take this state-of-the-art facility over," said Mrs Craigie.

"Given the amount of public investment as well as Barclays' sheer wealth, with annual profits running into the billions, myself and local people will expect nothing less.

"I hope to meet with representatives of the local workforce and will be keeping in close contact with the Minister,'' she added.

LIBERAL Democrat List MSP Hugh O'Donnell has written to the minister along these lines as he too believes locals have been cheated.

"I am hoping that the Scottish National Party will recover as much of the public investment in this site as possible from Barclays.

"And I am hoping that he will guarantee that all monies recovered will be reinvested in employment opportunities for those workers affected by the Goldfish closure.

"Failure do this will rightly be seen as a dereliction of duty and abandonment of the valuable workforce, and their families in Cumbernauld."

Scottish Nationalist Central Scotland List MSP Jamie Hepburn said: "The Scottish taxpayer has paid millions of pounds to assist the location of Goldfish to Cumbernauld. This was done on the basis that it would bring good quality jobs to the town, but Barclaycard have swept that all away with their decision to close the contact centre."

"I believe that Barclaycard should do the decent thing and hand back the public funds used to help establish the contact centre for the specific purpose of getting those out of a job, as a result of their disappointing decision, back into employment,'' he added.

MEANWHILE Rosemary McKenna MP said that she was working at Westminster to implement damage control. "I am bitterly disappointed that Barclays have made this decision. I have been working hard to persuade them of the excellence of the workforce and the facility," said the MP, who has also had talks with Minister for Employment Stephen Timms.

"He has promised to work with me and Jobcentre Plus to ensure full support for the workforce in the event that we are unsuccessful in retaining the facility. The Department of Work and Pensions has a superb record of assisting employees in closures of this nature – and in Cumbernauld I will expect no less."

Mrs McKenna then addressed the issue of the investment incentives - but believes there are no easy answers.
"There are always understandable concerns when public money is used to attract business and create jobs which become endangered. However, we must not forget that many thousands of people benefited from significant investment made in order to bring Morgan Stanley to Cumbernauld and create jobs in this part of Scotland,'' she said.

"Scottish Enterprise was instrumental in bringing these jobs to Cumbernauld eight years ago and handling the proposed job losses will be a real test for the new, reconfigured Scottish Enterprise.''

THE Scottish Socialist Party claimed a militant trade union presence at Goldfish might have prevented the closure.
Local branch member Kevin McVey (pictured) said: "The low density of trade union membership in Cumbernauld may make employers think they can more easily get away with dumping their workforce. Similarly, politicians in Scotland and Britain are so in thrall to big business interests that there is a climate created that makes employers feel they can pretty much do as they like. Events like this highlights why this culture has to change."

He added: "900 jobs represents a massive blow to the town and brings home the extent of the problems in the economy, despite assurances to the contrary from the Government."
clare.grant@jnscotland.co.uk