340-MILE PASSPORT DASH FURY; Scots get sent to Durham.Byline: Cara Sulieman SCOTS holidaymakers who need lastminute passports are being forced to travel hundreds of miles to offices in Belfast or Durham. And an angry MSP (1) (Management Service Provider or Managed Service Provider) An organization that manages a customer's computer systems and networks which are either located on the customer's premises or at a third-party datacenter. claims staff at the Glasgow passport office passport office passport n → bureau m de délivrance des passeports passport office passport n → Passamt nt passport office , where scores of jobs were cut last year, have been told to handle postal applications from England instead of helping local people. It's a 340-mile round trip from Glasgow to Durham or 200miles to Belfast and back, and holidaymakers from elsewhere in Scotland face far longer journeys. The round-trip from Inverness to Durham is 600 miles. David McLeish David McLeish (born February 21 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for South Melbourne in the VFL during the 1970's. External links
Depleted Hayley needed to turn up in person at the passport office. But when her dad tried to book an appointment at Glasgow, staff said she would have to go to Ulster or England. David said last night: "Hayley would have needed her passport to board a plane to Belfast so that wasn't an option. The only slot they could offer us was Durham." Desperate David got in touch with SNP SNP Scottish National Party Noun 1. SNP - (genetics) genetic variation in a DNA sequence that occurs when a single nucleotide in a genome is altered; SNPs are usually considered to be point mutations that have been evolutionarily MSP Sandra White, who has campaigned against job cuts at the Glasgow office. And after she stepped in, Hayley was given an appointment at Glasgow. White claims Scots travellers are getting a second-class passport service. She said: "Sources have told me that Glasgow is inundated by postal applications from England and staff have no time to attend to anything else. "Almost 100 jobs were cut at the Glasgow office last year and this is the result - a depleted staff working round the clock. "It's a disgrace to ask anyone living in Scotland to travel to England or Northern Ireland. "Applications from Scotland should have priority at our only passport office." Staff at Glasgow were told they would no longer have to deal with postal applications in the wake of last year's redundancies. But the Identity and Passport Service The Identity and Passport Service is an Executive Agency of the Home Office in the United Kingdom which became operational on 1 April 2006 after the passing of the Identity Cards Act 2006. admitted yesterday: "In recent weeks, Glasgow was requested to undertake some postal work to assist other offices maintain national turnaround targets." A spokesman claimed: "It was not at the expense of counter activity. Any increase in postal applications has no impact on counter service." CAPTION(S): TREK: Scots have to travel to Durham |
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