HOLIDAY giant Airtours was today accused of betraying Rossendale by MP and tourism minister Janet Anderson.

Her attack came as East Lancashire council chiefs admitted they had nothing to offer the firm to rival the building it has chosen in Rochdale for its new holiday empire headquarters.

The firm announced yesterday that it is moving to a building alongside the M62 at Rochdale to house 1,000-plus staff after being unable to find a suitable new site locally to bring together its operations in Helmshore, Huddersfield and Woking under one roof.

Although it will be keeping some staff in the town the loss to the area of hundreds of East Lancashire-based jobs is seen as a major blow to the local economy.

The firm stressed it did look at moving to another site in East Lancashire but found nothing suitable and that the new site in Rochdale -- which had been built recently as a corporate headquarters for the Co-op -- unexpectedly came onto the market.

Council chiefs today described the news as a "tremendous blow" but said they had done what they could to keep the jobs in East Lancashire.

But MP Mrs Anderson said:"I am extremely angry about this. I personally feel betrayed. Airtours have repeatedly assured me that they would stay in Rossendale and the council has gone out of its way to help."

John Tilley, head of East Lancashire Partnership which is charged with improving the area's economy, said the news was sad but that it was unusual situation in which the Rochdale building had become available.

"I understand from the company that there was an urgency from them to move. The Rochdale site is also better situated than East Lancashire would have been for the firm's staff in Huddersfield to travel to.

"I think it is a case of a very unusual opportunity arising and that particular building becoming available at the right time."

Councillor John Holt, leader of Rossendale Borough Council, said although the news was a tremendous blow to the area the firm's decision was understandable

"We have to be realistic. If the Rochdale building suited their requirements and made financial sense for their business then we can't really blame them."

He said the council had been working to help Airtours found alternative sites for some time.

"I understand they did consider the Ilex Mill at one point but that there wasn't enough parking available.

"The public may ask why Rossendale hasn't got sites that major companies like Airtours can move into. But we do have our constraints here of being a Valley because it means the area of flat land available for development is limited."

Coun Holt said the important thing now was to to make sure the workforce who are staying in Helmshore would be permanent.

"Airtours is a fast growing company and we would be looking to try and see the remaining presence in Helmshore grow."

Coun Holt stressed that the 100-200 employees who would remain at the building was still a very significant workforce in the Valley.

The managing director of Airtours Holidays, Richard Carrick, said the company had been looking for larger premises for around 18 months.

"We knew we were outgrowing the building we were in. We did look at quite a wide area including Helmshore."

He said there were a couple of possible options in the local area but that to build something from scratch or develop an existing would have taken two years from now.

"Out of the blue the Co-operative building became available in a very good location."

The new site will house more than 1,000 staff from Helmshore, Travelworld in Huddersfield and Going Places in Woking.

And Mr Carrick said that the firm had considered the effect its workforce before making the final decison to move its headquarters 12 miles away.

"We had done a survey of where employees lived and how they got to work. Five years ago most of the staff lived very near to the site and probably walked to work but we found that now only a small proportion walk to work and only a small proportion are actually from Helmshore.

"We want everyone to come with us. This is not a job loss situation."

He said arrangements would be made to help staff make the journey to the new site.

Mr Carrick also said the move to Rochdale would lead to more jobs being created in the region because many of the staff who work for the firm's Going Places operation in Woking would not want to relocate.

Between 100 and 200 Airtours staff will remain at its Holme Field House office in the town and operate a call centre dealing with travel agents. Mr Carrick said the company would look at helping people with particular needs who did not want to move to remain in the town at the centre.

A spokeswoman for Rochdale Development Agency, which helped broker the deal, stressed no grants had been made available to the firm.

She stressed it was a matter of the right premises coming available at the right time.