PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has won his battle to secure the future of the Benefits Agency office in Barnoldswick.

The office had been under threat following claims that too few people used it, but after a review and pressure from the MP, it has been announced that the service will not transfer to Colne.

Mr Prentice said: "When the closure proposal emerged last year, I made it crystal clear to the minister, Keith Bradley, that I wanted the office to stay in town.

"At a time when the Prime Minister was, quite rightly, drawing attention to the decline in rural services throughout the Conservative years, it would have been richly ironic if a town the size of Barnoldswick had lost its Benefits Agency office."

Mr Prentice said the agency had expressed concern about staff safety and other matters and he would be meeting with the agency's operations director on site to see what could be done.

"I want to see a better service for Barnoldswick," he added.

Last October, the office was closed temporarily and new security measures put in place to calm staff fears over working in an "isolated" office, following a violent incident at another office.

After a risk assessment study, the public office was fitted with a passive infra-red sensor and staff were given personal alarms.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.