Major Chatham steel firm considers 85 redundancies

Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader went down to Chatham Docks.

Transcript

00:00Save Chatham Docks! Save Chatham Docks!

00:04Redundancies in the run-up to Christmas, that's what ArcelorMittalKentWire are consulting on

00:11ahead of pulling out of the site at Chatham Docks.

00:16It follows a long-standing battle with Peel Waters, who own the site and want to see it developed into thousands of houses.

00:26Something which has divided Medway Council politically and as the planning authority,

00:33especially after the area was included in the local plan for the five towns' future housing.

00:41I really feel for the workers at Mittal, they are skilled, high-paying jobs that looks like they're going to lose.

00:49They now did make this very clear that if things didn't change that they would seek to relocate the plant from Chatham.

00:57Medway Labour have got, in my view, blood on their hands on this.

01:01In opposition they supported the docks. In power they haven't.

01:07All of this comes following a judicial review that's currently underway around the planning application,

01:15which was heard at the High Court at the end of October, though no ruling has yet been made.

01:22Obviously this is a dispute between a private landowner and a business that's operating on that land at the moment.

01:31That's obviously subject to continuing legal discussions.

01:35But I know that the Medway Labour Group has tried to make sure that we got a good solution there

01:42under the previous Conservative administration and unfortunately that didn't work in that situation.

01:49The threat of 85 redundancies comes during a difficult period for ArcelorMetal,

01:55the largest steel manufacturer in Europe, facing low demand and US tariffs.

02:02Though the companies say they're committed to a fair and thorough consultation process

02:09and will not comment further until that process is complete.

02:14Peelwaters say they have tried to work with ArcelorMetal and other tenants to explore relocation solutions for the last 10 years.

02:26But with dozens of jobs on the line, the political reverberations of this will be felt for years to come.

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