Alexander Stafford, Conservative Member of Parliament for Rother Valley, has today written to Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, asking for the Government to consider locating a new PPE production facility in Thurcroft.
Local residents have written to Alexander to highlight the prime opportunity to locate regional production facilities in this colliery community, which has a long industrial and coal mining heritage, including a previous textile factory.
Wood Bastow, which opened a site in Thurcroft in 1971, had a number of sites including in Thurcroft and Selston. These sites produced female textile products and employed workers from across South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. The site at Thurcroft closed during the period of de-industrialisation that also saw the Thurcroft colliery close.
A new PPE production facility at Thurcroft will, as Alexander and residents highlight, both help to rebuild local industry in the area as well as provide reliable domestically produced PPE. This facility would help secure PPE supply chains for the future as well as providing an opportunity to level up jobs and skills in Thurcroft, with a need for skilled labour to produce PPE meeting the highest UK safety standards.
Commenting Alexander said:
"The Covid-19 outbreak has shown the dangers of relying on cheap Chinese made PPE. These products were found to be faulty and instead communities across Rother Valley and the country created a cottage industry of voluntary PPE production. A PPE facility here in Thurcroft would not only safeguard domestic PPE supplies, both in normal times and times of crisis, but it would also show that this Conservative Government is serious about levelling up and investing in our left behind communities. Thurcroft has a proud industrial background, and this facility would honour both that heritage and the local voluntary efforts to produce PPE here in Rother Valley".
