No passport office for Wick
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A HIGHLAND councillor is “absolutely sickened” that a new “flexible” passport interview service will not come to the Far North to replace the closing Wick office.
Last week the September closure of the local passport interview office was revealed by the Caithness Courier after an anonymous tip-off. A Home Office spokesperson confirmed the date and said a mobile service would be offered instead.
However, it has now emerged that the office will in fact close on Saturday and that a new “flexible” service operating out of Dundee will not come to Caithness, meaning first-time applicants will face a 200-mile round trip to use the service when it visits Inverness, or travel to one of the other offices in Aberdeen or Edinburgh.
SNP Wick councillor Gail Ross has slammed the money-saving move by the Home Office as being insensitive to the needs of the area.
“I am absolutely sickened that this is yet another instance of people in the Far North being discriminated against because of our geography,” said Mrs Ross. “We seem to be constantly fighting to keep things open – the maternity unit, the post office, the tax office and now this.”
She added: “The people in control at Westminster need to realise the British Isles do not stop at Inverness.”
Inverness and Dundee’s offices are also to shut in the money-saving bid and will be replaced by the flexible system, comprising 12 teams covering the UK and Northern Ireland.
A Home Office spokesperson explained that the lease does not run out in the Wick Business Park-based office until September, but that it will be closed to the public from June 11.
The spokesperson said that the plans indicate that the flexible system will be set up and involve moving staff around the UK but that it would not come to Wick.
“In some cases, the nearest office may be a longer distance than in others but we have to cut down on our estate because it is underused and would have resulted in the passport fee being used for offices operating nowhere near their capacity,” he said.
“As a public service, we need to ensure that the passport fee is used to deliver value for money and not fund underused office accommodation or pay for staff working under capacity.”
The spokesperson said that the service revamp will save around £24 million.
The three staff currently working at the local office are to be offered redeployment opportunities.
Interviews for first-time applicants are a recent addition to the passport process set up by the Government’s Identity and Passport Service and are used to help combat identity theft.
Based in Wick Business Park, the local office opened in January 2008 and operated on a part-time basis – on a Tuesday and Saturday from 10am to 3pm.
