NO AMOUNT of cash incentives from the government would have persuaded Vestas Blades to scrap their closure plans for the Island’s wind turbine plant, Parliament was told this week.
Yesterday (Thursday), workers produced the last blades at the factory, which is set to close at the end of the month with the loss of around 600 manufacturing jobs.
In a statement at the House of Commons, about the government’s low-carbon transmission plan, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Milliband, said the Danish firm would not have been persuaded by government grants to retain manufacturing on the Isle of Wight.
Island MP Andrew Turner told the County Press: "I have had a number of meetings with government ministers about the work they had undertaken with Vestas prior to the announcement they planned to close the factory on the Island.
"It was very clear to me they had explored every avenue in order to work with the company to keep the factory open."
One worker at the plant said he was not surprised at Vestas’ attitude. He said: "They want to get rid of everyone and close the factory. They have made their decision. They just think it is cheaper to produce them elsewhere."
Last Saturday, a rally was held in Newport as part of a campaign to try to save the stricken plant from closure. And this week, the government announced around 400,000 new green jobs would be created in the UK by 2015
However, all 7,000 of the wind turbines the government will commit to installing will be made overseas.
A spokesman for the department of energy and climate change said the decision to close the plant was a commercial one for Vestas.
A spokesman for Vestas was unavailable for comment.
Reporter: davidn@iwcpmail.co.uk