A SECOND round of job losses have been announced by aerospace giant Rolls Royce at their facility in East Lancashire.

Sixty jobs are expected to be axed at Barnoldswick, early in 2019.

This follows confirmation earlier this year of 162 posts being lost at their Bankfield and Ghyll Brow sites.

Bosses at the outfit insist they will do everything they can to avoid compulsory redundancies.

But Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson has voiced his disappointment at the development, which has come after Rolls had been in the processing of expanding its Barnoldswick operation.

Mr Stephenson, vice-chairman of the All-Party Aerospace Group, said: "This is deeply disappointing news for employees, especially coming at this time of year.

"I look forward to meeting with Rolls-Royce soon to discuss these redundancies and the need for further investment at our local sites."

Plans for extensions at Bankfield were approved by councillors in November 2016, and the firms says it has invested £136million at Barnoldswick since 2014.

Insiders at the Skipton Road factories have repeatedly expressed concerns work is being lost to similar Rolls sites in Singapore.

A Rolls-Royce spokesman said: "We must continually review current workload and assess future customer demand to remain competitive.

"As part of this planning process we have identified a requirement to reduce the headcount of around 900 employees at our Barnoldswick facility by approximately 60 during early 2019.

"We will offer full support to employees who are impacted by the changes and as part of this process we will look at opportunities for the redeployment of affected employees, voluntary severance and reducing the use of agency workers.

"We will seek to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible."