THREATS to the future of Okehampton Job Centre have been lifted after a fight to keep it open led by West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett.

It was feared the town might lose the facility in a radical shake-up of employment services. But following a meeting between Mr Burnett and Minister of State for Work and Pensions Nick Brown this week it has been confirmed the centre will remain open, although it will be on a part-time basis.

A new Service Delivery Plan for Devon aims to create a more integrated system to to get many more people back into work. As part of the plan, Jobcentre Plus, which is the new name for the Employment Service, has been investigating alternative ways of delivering services — such as from partners' premises or mobile services — as well as offering a full range of services from selective offices.

Mr Burnett said the campaign to keep Okehampton open had been fought on its strategic location and the fast growing population.

'I am very grateful to Nick Brown who has recognised the special needs of Okehampton,' he said. 'This job centre is vital to the town because the population is expanding dramatically and it serves such a large catchment area.

'For people to have to travel from an outlying village into Okehampton and then onto Exeter for basic services is totally unacceptable.'

Mr Burnett said unemployment in the Okehampton area had reduced from more than ten per cent to two per cent in the last five years and that was in part down to the efforts of the job centre staff.

'We had persistent and stubborn unemployment here, but things have improved a lot,' he said. 'With 30 acres of new employment land coming on-stream in Okehampton, there needs to be somewhere where recruitment can take place and advice given to jobseekers — we could not afford to lose this facility.'

District manager for Jobcentre Plus in Devon Phil Weeks said from around April next year when the new system was put in place, Okehampton would be open on a part-time basis, offering the normal services like Job Points, benefits advice and two-weekly reviews.

'As far as we are concerned it is good news from the point of view of where we were a few weeks ago when it looked as though we would not be offering any services from Okehampton,' he said.

'Under the new system there will be a lot more specialised help and job seekers will be assigned their own personal advisers to help them back into work.'

Mr Weeks said it was very difficult to provide all the specialised skills in one place when Devon had so many offices in small communities with only a handful of people working in them.

Manager of Okehampton Job Centre Margaret Houghton said the news was good for the people of Okehampton and district, but how many days the office would be open and how many of the seven staff would stay had not yet been confirmed.

'We would liked to have had a full Jobcentre Plus office here in the town but at least we will still have a presence,' she said. 'People will have access to the advice and job information which they have always had, but the main interviews are likely to take place at the most convenient office, which is likely to be Exeter.'