THOUSANDS of car workers in Longbridge get their redundancy letters today as political and business leaders in the West Midlands begin the massive task of looking for ways of filling an employment vacuum.

It will be far from easy to replace the jobs which will be swept away by the collapse of MG Rover in the big factories and the dozens of companies which supply parts and services to the motor industry in the region.

And the experience of East Lancashire with the disappearance of its traditional industries shows that there are unlikely to be any quick solutions.

In East Lancashire new businesses have gradually been encouraged to set up on industrial estates which once housed mills.

But it has been a lengthy process.

Today for example we hear that 12 years after the closure of Lower Darwen Paper Mill a planning application has gone in for 12 office blocks on the site which could help to house up to 1,000 much-needed white collar jobs alongside the M65.

Building the blocks doesn't guarantee that jobs will be created but the scheme is a mark of faith for the future of the area.

It is only by such effort and imagination that East Lancashire has managed to continue finding alternative employment for those whose jobs have disappeared.