A Labour MP has tabled a Commons motion condemning plans to close district offices and cut staff on his local evening paper.

Five jobs are set to go at the Evening Gazette, Teesside, as part of the wider-ranging shake-up announced across Trinity Mirror’s North-East titles last week.

In addition all three of the paper’s district offices, in Guisborough, Redcar and Stockton, are due to close, with only the main Middlesbrough office remaining open.

Now Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP Ashok Kumar has tabled a Commons early day motion deploring the moves which he says will result in the loss of the paper’s “eyes and ears.”

Mr Kumar said: “Trinity Mirror has told the paper to make economies – but I feel the moves that are contemplated are the wrong ones, and ones that will damage the paper itself.

“They are proposing to close district offices in Guisborough, Redcar and Stockton and to make five redundancies amongst editorial staff. My fear is that these moves will rebound on the paper.

“The staff based in the district offices are simply the eyes and ears of the paper in areas where there is often a lot of news generated.

“Indeed only yesterday, the paper led on a story of a climbing tragedy on Roseberry Topping which was covered by the Guisborough reporter. These closures would mean that local news may end up unreported, and in turn would mean a blander paper, and one that could lose readership as a result.”

The early day motion, which has already been signed by five fellow MPs, asks Trinity Mirror at the highest level to think again about their plans to cut costs, in particular the district office closures.

Trinity Mirror declined to comment.

Comments

Bob (23/11/2008 17:43:43)
Easy for the MP to say, but what would he prefer that TM do nothing and go bust leaving the local community with no local paper and a greater number of lost jobs?

GD (26/11/2008 00:00:28)
Bob, when the entire paper is written and subbed filled with ads sold, set and placed in Newcastle (which I believe will happen some time next year). It will then stop being a ‘local’ newspaper, employing ‘local’ people. I was always led to believe that Teesside was one of the most efficient and profitable titles in the TM portfolio. The glorious profits of yesteryear should have been ‘put away for a rainy day’ to weather this storm. Inept, self-serving, short-sighted management is as much to blame for the crisis facing TM as the state of the global economy. From Sly to local MD/director level should apologise for lives wrecked already and stand down! I wouldn’t trust any of them to run a bath, never mind newspapers.