JOBCENTRE bosses have been accused of acting like infamous rail boss Dr Beeching in their scaling-down of the service in Melksham.
Confusion surrounds the future of the Church Street centre, earmarked for closure in 2005 so JobCentre Plus centres can be created in Trowbridge, Chippenham, Salisbury and Swindon.
Opening hours will be slashed from next week with the centre opening just three days a week.
Town councillors are furious they did not hear about the planned closure until after a deadline for comments and opinions had passed.
The deadline for comments has now been extended but town councillors want any change to the opening hours, planned for Monday, to be suspended.
Cllr Nick Westbrook said: "This apparently seems to come from the Dr Beeching school of management. They shut the service down progressively so people cannot use it and then use this as a reason to shut it down altogether."
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