Support for Vestas workers

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 21st Jul 2009

The Island Liberal Democrats join their colleagues Chris Huhne MP and Simon Hughes MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, in questioning why the Government haven't been able to support Vestas blade manufacturing on the Island as they had with the Vestas wind turbine factory in Scotland.

Jill Wareham, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, said "Our MP and the Isle of Wight Council should be putting in maximum effort to secure the jobs at Vestas. The loss of up to 600 jobs will have a massive impact on not only those individuals and their families but the whole of the Island economy. We must not sit back and let this happen without a fight. I understand that a deal was negotiated in Scotland earlier this year to secure 100 jobs at Vestas; we are looking at up to 600 job losses on the Island. If the Government are serious about creating 400,000 green jobs then there should be negotiations going on to secure the blade manufacturing on the Island and retain the expertise of these workers.