1. Reporters in Swansea will now have to travel to Cardiff to offer cover for staff shortages. Concerns have been raised over the impact this will have on the coverage of local news in south west Wales.

This has never happened, nor has anyone been told it is likely to happen. However, there have been occasions where the reverse has happened - ie, that reporters based in Cardiff have covered staff shortages in the Swansea, Carmarthen and Llanelli offices,

2. The reporting team in Swansea has lost a member of staff to the commercial sector who will apparently not be replaced, thereby putting further pressure on the service being provided to the south west.

We have recruited two members of staff into the Swansea team since this internal move was made to accommodate the personal requirments of the member of staff involved.

3. Staff based in your Swansea office, across all departments, will be paid less than their counterparts in Cardiff (we understand that you are aware of this discrepancy and have stated that you do not plan to take any action to rectify it).

This is a matter that is being dealt with between our HR team and our staff, and as such is confidential. However, I can say that there is no major disparity between staff pay in the former Local World parts of the business in South West Wales, and the original Trinity Mirror section in Cardiff.

4. Trainees at the Evening Post on a Trinity Mirror contract are being paid more than the Evening Post’s senior reporters and department editors, further highlighting the discrepancies in pay.

This is completely untrue.

5. There are also discrepancies in the sickness benefits available to staff, whereby Evening Post staff are being afforded less favourable conditions than those on Trinity Mirror contracts.

Sickness terms for Evening Post staff have been improved so that the same terms are in place for all staff across the business.

6. There will no longer be staff representative meetings with the management on these issues.

This is completely untrue. As always, we have consulted extensively with staff on all changes, and will continue to do so.

7. Furthermore, we understand that redundancies are not being offered and that staff are simply being told to leave if they are not content with their current situation.

This is a rather dramatic way of describing the situation, but I can confirm that, as with normal business practice, we do not have an open door redundancy policy in place for anyone unhappy in their role. Any contractual changes as a result of the Local World/Trinity Mirror merger have meant an improvement in terms, and, as such, we have no legal or moral obligation to make redundancy available to these staff.