PCS: Shouting out to save local tax offices
Two representatives of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are to travel over 1,000 miles across Scotland in five days, sleeping in a tent in a bid to help save 19 tax offices threatened with closure.
The gruelling journey taking place between Monday 14 and Friday 18 July is part of the Scottish HMRC Offices Under Threat (SHOUT) campaign which opposes the closures of local offices proposed by Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Hamish Drummond and John Davidson will tour all 19 offices planned for closure in a HMRC announcement last month. Many are in isolated and rural areas, opening in Wick in Caithness and closing in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, collecting petitions in each of threatened offices signed by union members, local staff and the public in each location.
Hamish said: The magnitude of what we’re about to do is only just sinking in. Looking over my wee map and working out the distances between offices it struck me just how vast the areas of Scotland are that HMRC plans to leave without a permanent presence. What SHOUT has come together to say is that these cuts are not in the interest of anyone but HMRC’s moneymen and the tax cheats that will find it easier to diddle everyone else.
SHOUT campaigners have previously warned that the ability of HMRC to collect revenues and provide tax advice to the community and local businesses would be drastically undermined by the closures.
John said: The tour will demonstrate the serious effect these unjustified closures will have on some of the most isolated communities in Scotland. It is pie in the sky to expect someone from Wick to travel to Inverness for an emergency payment of tax credit, or to tell someone from Hawick they need to travel to Carlisle to talk face to face about their tax code that day. These plans threaten to rip the heart out of rural communities. HMRC needs to have a serious rethink.
HMRC staff numbers have already fallen by 15,000 across the UK since March 2004 with over 200 offices closed or earmarked for closure. In Scotland, 670 jobs stand to go from local communities following the announcements by HMRC on the 11 June 2008.
ENDS
Notes for editors
For further information, campsite photocalls, interviews and comment please contact John Davidson on 07833 667262 or Hamish Drummond on 07843 416324
The planned itinerary for the tour is:
Sunday: Travel up from Glasgow – camping in Wick – distance travelled 265 miles
Monday: Visiting offices in: Wick 9am to 9.45am; Inverness 12.30pm to 1.15pm; Elgin 2.15pm to 2.30pm; Buckie 3.15 to 4pm – camping in Peterhead – 160 miles
Tuesday: Peterhead 9am to 9.45am; Perth 12pm to 12.45pm; Oban 3.15pm to 4.30pm – camping in Rothesay – 270 miles
Wednesday: Rothesay 8.30am to 9.15am; Dunoon 10.15am to 10.45am; Greenock 11.30am to 12.15pm; Irvine 1pm to 1.45pm; Dumfries 3.30pm to 4.15pm – camping in Stirling – 239 miles
Thursday: Stirling 9am to 9.45am; Falkirk 10.45am to 11.30am; Grangemouth 1pm to 1.45pm; Dunfermline 3pm to 3.45pm – camping in Galashiels – 205 miles
Friday: Hawick 10am to 10.45am; Galashiels 11.30am to 12.15pm
SHOUT is a new campaigning body set up to oppose the HMRC office closures announced on 11 June 2008. It comprises staff, trade unionists, local residents and businesses
The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 315,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies. It also represents workers in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UKs sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC and the STUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka, the president is Janice Godrich and the Scottish secretary is Eddie Reilly.
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