The council said the majority of people who currently use the facility come from out of the Stoke-on-Trent area, and that its closure would have a minimal impact on local people.
According to Chaiyuth Seneetantikul, of the local chapter of the Federation of Thai Industries, orders are down by only around 12% and redundancies have been minimal.
As for those eight local veteran outreach centers established by that 1999 law, critics say they are generally isolated from one another and receive minimal guidance from a central authority.