400 jobs are safe @ MS&D

THE future of Hoddesdon pharmaceutical giant Merck Sharp and Dohme - and the 400-plus workers there - has been safeguarded.

Bosses ruled out its closure and announced plans to develop it into a "global centre of excellence".

The company, a feature of the town since the 1950s, will NOT be a casualty of a massive restructuring by US parent firm Merck & Co Inc.

Instead the site, which is home to MSD's UK headquarters, will be developed into an international base for organic and synthetic chemistry research.

There are currently 440 people employed at Hoddesdon, although 10 could go in the company shake-up.

But just down the road in Harlow, 260 jobs will disappear as the company's neuroscience research centre, Terlings Park, is shut down.

Sixty jobs will also go at the company's chemical plant at Ponders End in Enfield, as the firm scales down its manufacturing operations at that plant, ready for complete closure by 2007.

Marshals mean higher taxi fares

A NEW taxi marshalling scheme launched in Hertford could mean a longer walk in the cold and a more expensive ride home for some pub-goers.

Two marshals, funded by the East Herts Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, were on duty on Friday and Saturday nights to supervise taxi queues and prevent a free-for-all.

Revellers seeking a taxi between 9pm and 3am are directed to wait in Fore Street, though cab drivers are continuing to pick up in Railway Street and elsewhere.

One contributor to community discussion forum Hertford Online asked: "As all cabs are now supposed to pick up on Fore Street and I live near Hertford North, who will be picking up the difference for driving me round the one-way system?"

The detour will add around £2 to the cost of a journey.

He continued: "A designated cab rank at either end of town would dilute the amount of people gathered in one place and mean that people drinking in the Old Cross Tavern or No 11 wouldn't have to traipse across town to Fore Street to get a cab.