I wanted to save Guernsey, NSPCC official

Wednesday 30th March 2011, 2:29PM BST.

NSPCC director of services for children and families Wesley Cuell, right, on his way to a tribunal hearing with one of the society’s legal team. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 1115667)

A TOP NSPCC manager told an employment tribunal yesterday that he fought to save the charity’s Guernsey office over its Jersey branch when they were threatened with closure.

Guernsey’s project was one of nine closed last year as part of a new strategy aimed at focussing resources on large cities and towns.

Four of the staff who lost their jobs, Mick Dunbar, Rosalyn Priaulx, Julie Bowditch and Alison Wakefield, have taken the charity to a tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.

Director of services for children and families Wesley Cuell said that when the prospect of closing some centres was first discussed, he suggested that Guernsey’s should be the one to stay open in the Channel Islands.