COUNCIL bosses have been left fuming as the town's job centre has shut with no sign of replacement.

Darwen job centre is scheduled to close on Friday, meaning service users will be forced to travel to Blackburn to sign on.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) announced plans to merge the centre with the Blackburn site in January.

They held a public consultation which helped them gather information about the potential effects of the closure of this office on claimants and staff.

As part of the consultation Blackburn with Darwen Council and Darwen Town Council bosses wrote to the DWP asking for the proposed closure of the Darwen site to be reversed.

The DWP said that the responses they received did not provide a basis to change their plans and the decision was made to close the site.

Councillor Dave Smith, who represents Darwen on the Town and Borough Council sent a letter to the department suggesting the service be moved to Darwen Town Hall.

He said: “It’s a detrimental step for Darwen. Now people will have to go to Blackburn to sign on which will cost £4.40 for a day pass. That’s a lot of money to people who use the job centre

“All the department want to do is save money and make it harder all round for those wanting to claim.

“It’s disappointing that we made suggestions to try and keep the service in Darwen but no one got back to us.

“If they used a room in Darwen Town Hall to replace the centre they could close the job centre and save the money but keep the service in Darwen.

“That was the suggestion I and the other councillor made and we heard nothing.

“There’s been no communication, they just put a notice up on the door saying it was closing on Friday.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the building."

A DWP spokesperson said: “Darwen Jobcentre is becoming increasingly underused, particularly as more of our services are offered online.

Merging the jobcentre with our site in Blackburn means we can continue to provide a first-rate level of service to our claimants.”

Cllr Smith said: “No everyone is online, a lot of the most vulnerable people in the town will not be online."