JUST seven months ago, 1700 people left the Hall's of Broxburn factory for the final time, jobless, and uncertain of where their next pay check would come.
Since then about 1000 jobs have been lined up for many of the sacked workers after more than £8 million was poured into rebuilding the local economy and the community's confidence.
When Dutch firm Vion closed the West Lothian meat-production plant an emergency government recovery task force swung into action. Unemployment rates in the area have subsequently improved, former employees have started up their own business and other Hall's workers have been re-employed in food-processing plants around the Central Belt.
Footwear firm Schuh is to create 50 jobs, while hundreds more have been safeguarded in the region due to direct grant support, the Scottish Government said.
Finance Secretary John Swinney said about 100 firms were already benefiting from specific funds to take on new employees.
The progress was welcomed by the area's Labour MSP, and the union Usdaw said it hoped the new jobs would require skills equivalent to those of the Hall's workers.
The community was stunned when Vion announced last year it was losing £79,000 a day and planned to close the plant, despite the plant being busy with orders and maintaining its position of producer of the UK's best-selling haggis.
Mr Swinney convened the task force, which comprised various agencies, including Scottish Enterprise, representatives from the Westminster Government and West Lothian Council to deal with the fallout from the job losses.
The community has also been boosted by initiatives that include £630,000 towards on-site support during the wind-down of the factory; £225,000 for English-language training for 400 workers, mainly from Poland; and a new £1m Business Gateway centre that is in itself creating 170 jobs.
Scottish Enterprise is allocating more than £1m across a further 84 firms to bring nearly 400 jobs.
Precise figures on the direct re-employment of Hall's workers are unavailable as maintaining contact with former employees after a certain time frame is difficult and information from workers can only be gathered voluntarily.
The task force hopes to create 3000 posts in the area over five years from £29m of public funding which will also help to develop skills, secure existing jobs and support new and expanding companies.
Mr Swinney said: "Firms, such as Campbells Meats and AK Stoddart, beef-processing firms based in Broxburn, employed former Hall's employees. Hall's staff have also been provided with support to set up their own businesses such as Kowalski Couriers and the Pit Stop cafe.
"Footwear group Schuh received £170,000 of funding through the West Lothian Fund, created from the demise of Vion, to help the economy of West Lothian."
Mr Swinney said the company's move to Bathgate is expected to safeguard 88 jobs and create 50 over the next five years.
He added: "It is always difficult for any area affected by a large number of redundancies.
"The early results in Broxburn are a sign of a community determined to recover, and the Scottish Government will continue to support West Lothian to rebuild following Hall's closure."
Council development convener Cathy Muldoon said: "Significant progress has been made.
"Town centre shop occupancy in Broxburn is currently 93%, which is higher than the average for West Lothian."
Mr Swinney added that the employment situation in Broxburn has improved since January 2013 when it was 4.1%. He said that in September 2013 this had fallen to 3.1%.
Neil Findlay, Lothians MSP for Labour, said: "These reports show good progress in helping to find new jobs for the workers at Hall's. So many different organisations have played their part in helping to get so many back to work, but with hundreds still to find work, there can't be any let-up. We need to redouble the effort."
Usdaw said it was still disappointed a buyer could not be found for the plant. A spokesman said the recovery plan was to be welcomed but added: "We still feel the factory didn't have to close."
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