AS FEW as 30 workers could remain at Newport’ s passport office and the move could threaten 500 jobs across the city centre, a Westminster meeting heard yesterday.

Minister of state for immigration Damian Green told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee the Newport office, which currently employs 300 people, would continue to provide a one-day passport issuing service, interview new applicants and process all Welsh language applications - but other "back-room" paperwork would go elsewhere.

Chief executive for the Identity and Passport service Sarah Rapson said between 30 and 45 staff would be retained by the downsized service and Newport East MP Jessica Morden demanded a written explanation of how so few staff could provide all the services promised.

The Argus is campaigning to save Wales' only passport office, and we say Wales should not be unfairly targeted to bear all of the cuts in the service.

Newport council leader Matthew Evans told the committee in the House of Commons that research on the economic impact of the proposals, carried out by an independent body, found 500 jobs could be threatened by the move - including the 300 passport workers and staff at nearby businesses.

He said: "There are a number of jobs in the private sector which will also disappear - it’s the effect on local trade and the city itself.

"Newport has been going through very difficult times, like the recent announcements Marks and Spencer and Monsoon are moving out of the city centre - this just adds to the problem."

Mr Green said an economic impact study was being carried out as part of the consultation.

Identity and Passport Service PCS group secretary Alan Brown and Cllr Evans told the committee the first the union and council knew about the proposals was when the media contacted them on October 8 - when the proposals were made public.

Ms Rapson was asked why relevant parties were not informed sooner and she claimed informal discussions about the closure of the Newport office began with the PCS in June.

Members also questioned why cuts would not made across the UK’s passport offices to lessen the impact on Newport.

Mr Green said that option would not save sufficient funds, because there the service currently owned too much estate and employed too many people.

After the meeting, Ms Morden vowed to keep up pressure to save the office and said: “It feels like the decision has been made with little thought to the impact on Newport and now the Home Office is working backwards to try to justify it.”

The Argus’ petition to save the office now has 21,793 signatures.

We hope to present it to the government in the next week, so please either sign the petition online or post outstanding petition forms back to the Argus offices at Cardiff Road, Maesglas, Newport, NP20 3QN.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Cuts should be shared

YESTERDAY we learned that it few as 30 jobs could exist in Newport’s passport service if the main office closes.

Chief executive for the Identity and Passport service Sarah Rapson raised the figure during a Welsh Affairs Committee hearing.

That same hearing was told that in addition to the 300 jobs lost if the passport office closes, the knock-on effect could be the loss of a further 200 jobs in Newport city centre.

If the Home Office believes, as it says it does, that a Newport passport office could offer the same level of service as it does now, with just 30 staff instead of the current 300, then why aren't all passport offices across the country facing the same level of cuts.

This is obviously a nonsensical argument.

The pain is not being shared across the country because it is easier for civil servants to suggest closing a building in Wales.

We believe that consideration of the job losses here is simply irrelevant to the likes of Sarah Rapson.

Newport's passport office should be saved and the savings which have to be made, shared across the service nationwide.

It is madness that Wales will be the only country in Europe without its own passport office.

Nothing we heard yesterday has changed our view.

The passport office cannot be allowed to close. Our petition signed by more than 20,000 people demonstrates this.

We will not give up our fight to save it and we believe that cuts to the passport service can be spread more fairly.