Today’s (Monday 28 May) announcement that the Coryton oil refinery in Essex cannot be saved as a “going concern,” with consultations starting on 500 redundancies, has been called a “bitter blow” by the Euro MP who was leading the campaign to save it and a decision that could have been avoided.
Labour’s Richard Howitt MEP said he had written to the Energy Minister last week and spoken personally with the Government urging them to intervene “before it is too late” but said his appeal had “fallen on deaf ears.”
Commenting on today’s decision, Richard Howitt MEP says: “This is desperate news for the more than 500 permanent staff and up to 500 contractors dependent on refining at Coryton and a severe blow to an area
desperately in need of jobs as part of the Thames Gateway.
“The news is unexpected from a workforce who always believed they could succeed and flies in the face of everything we have worked hard to achieve.”
Commenting on the Government’s failure to intervene to save the jobs,Richard Howitt MEP added:
“The process of selling the company through the administrators has failed but it is the government which should have stepped in earlier.
“I know the administrators had asked them to provide state aid as part of a rescue deal, and personally urged them to intervene before it was too late.
“I was incensed that the Government called those who said the refinery might shut we’re ‘crying wolf,’ because today we have learnt it is too late.”
Comparing the decision to move towards shutting Coryton with the successful sale of Belgian and Swiss refineries which had become bankrupt in the same Petroplus group, Richard Howitt MEP added:
“If Belgian and Swiss refineries can be saved and the French government can provide £16million to help save theirs, there is no excuse for the British Government to sit on its hands.
“This is a failure of political will.
