MOBILE telephone giant Vodafone is to close its Oxfordshire call centre with the loss of 400 jobs, it was revealed last night.

The company said it was shutting its site at Banbury Business Park in Adderbury next year to “improve and simplify the service we offer our customers.”

Vodafone added it would be recruiting more than 200 staff to bolster its workforce at other call centres in Newark, near Nottingham, Stoke and Didsbury near Manchester.

But human resources director Matthew Brearley admitted it was unlikely staff from Adderbury would transfer to other parts of the country, athough some would be offered positions at the Newbury headquarters.

He said: “Many people won’t want to make that decision so we are also offering very good support with a redundancy programme and package of financial support.”

The last staff are expected to leave the site by June next year.