Freescale Job Losses Are A Disaster For Our Local Economy

Today's announcement that Freescale is to close its semiconductor manufacturing plant in East Kilbride, (the old Motorola factory), with the loss of 750 skilled manufacturing jobs and many additional redundancies in associated supply companies, really is a disaster for our local economy.

For many years, I worked with a dedicated management team at this site to design a state of the art waste management and recycling solutions at this factory. Having done so I know the importance of Freescale to so many associate companies in the service sector, companies who supply goods and services to Freescale, and before it Motorola, and suspect that the true scale of the impact of this announcement is still to be fully realised by the media and public alike.

I fear the full extent of today's announcement will not be fully understood until the plant finally closes, with the inevitable loss of jobs this brings both to Freescale personnel and to those businesses who have been reliant on servicing this site to sustain their core business.

Our Labour government proves itself completely inept once again at retaining vital manufacturing business within the UK, exactly the type of business that creates new wealth which enables the State to proposer from tax revenues it can then invest into improved local services from which we all benefit.

So many people in East Renfrewshire work directly or indirectly to Freescale - I truly hope they all find suitable alternative employment and can assure them I empathise with them at this very difficult time.