Regional publisher Newsquest has voluntarily paid back a £245,000 grant to the Welsh government following the closure of its Newport copy-editing hub

The Welsh government previously provided £245,808 in grant aid to the publisher towards the creation of 50 jobs and the safeguarding of at least 15 jobs at the facility, with the award being conditional on the jobs being in place until May 2020.

Although Newsquest says it is currently fulfilling the conditions of the grant, it says it decided to return the money owing to the possibility that it may wish to make further changes to the business before that date.

The copy-editing hub at Maesglas closed on 7 April with the loss of 14 jobs, but some group editorial functions along with page planning are still being carried out there.

A Newsquest spokesman said: “Whilst Newsquest currently meet the terms and conditions of the grant, we were alert to the possibility that between now and 2020 we may wish to undertake further changes to our business.

“Although we have no current plans to do this, we believed it would be correct to return the grant, and Newsquest has therefore given back the £245,000 grant in full.

“This was entirely at our own volition. We would like to thank the Welsh Government for their support.”

Last month, Newsquest announced plans to close its other production hub in Weymouth, putting 18 jobs at risk. The company said this was due to a “continued decline” in the centre’s workload.

John Toner, NUJ Welsh organiser, said: “The lesson of this sorry tale is that the Welsh government should have used the grant to support local newspapers and fund media start-ups rather than this profitable American-owned publisher.

“That is why we are asking that the refunded money be used to aid new and struggling news enterprises.”