THE boss of the government agency that wants to shut the Newport passport office was greeted with a chorus of hissing and booing at the centre yesterday.

Sarah Rapson, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, arrived in Newport yesterday to take question and answer sessions with staff at both Newport’s passport and passport interview offices.

But around 20 workers heckled the IPS chief executive as she went through the entrance of the Upper Dock Street branch.

The workers, which included union officials, held placards calling for the passport office to be kept open and chanted “save our jobs”.

Up to 300 face losing their jobs if the office closes.

The chief executive didn’t stop to chat, though, and walked past the crowd to get to her meeting.

Anne-Louise McKeon-Williams, Public and Commercial Services union, said it was as if “she didn’t give a damn”.

One worker, who did not want to be named, said she just felt “sick” when she saw her.

“All the feelings came back from the original announcement,” she said.

Speaking to the Argus before she went into the passport office, Ms Rapson denied yesterday that Wales will be left without a passport office at all.

But she said: “There’s lots being reported and lots of MPs are making the point that Wales will not have a passport office - that’s simply not true.

“We will still off a same-day service and an interview office in Wales, in Newport.

“We have that we will have a customer service centre n Newport, and there will be between 30 and 45 jobs.”

In an interview with the Argus Ms Rapson said our petition of more than 27,000 names against the closure is being considered together with other contributions to the consultation.

“That’s one of the reasons why we have extended the consultation so we can take that into consideration as possible prior to reaching a final decision,” she said.

Responding to criticisms that no assessment of what economic impact the closure would have on the city was done before the proposals were put thought, Ms Rapson she said she thought the process had been conducted the “right way around”.

She said: “We have put something on the table and we have invited people to comment.”

If it the economic study was conducted first it could as looked as if the IPS was putting “the cart before the horse”, she suggested.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Can you hear Mrs Rapson?

WHILE it was pleasing to see the boss of the government agency that wants to shut the Newport passport office in Newport yesterday we hope that she actually took all concerns on board.

Sarah Rapson, the chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, said very little to us as she arrived in the city to hissing and booing from several staff yesterday.

In fact, what she did tell us we already knew.

But saying Wales will not be left without any passport office is simply not good enough.

We have said that closing the Newport office with the loss of 300 jobs is sheer madness.

The economic impact this will have on the city - an area already hit hard in the recession - has now been well documented with the experts believing it could cost up to £37 million.

We have said from the start that these job losses could easily be spread around other areas, particularly London.

It is vital a fully functioning passport office is retained in Wales.

We hope Mrs Rapson found her visit valuable but more importantly we hope the true economic impact this will have on the city is now realised.

Because so far all arguments appear to have fallen on deaf ears.