Ordnance factory 'to close'

Bosses are understood to be working on proposals which would see work transferred away from the Roman Road site which was once the town's biggest employer.

Although no final decisions have been taken the workforce believe closure of the factory, which once employed thousands, now looks almost certain.

Under the proposals the electronics side of the business -- one of three divisions that the factory has been split into recently -- will be moved into a new unit in the Blackburn area and come under the wing of RO's parent firm BAE Systems.

The fuzes division would move onto RO's Chorley site under a joint venture with French firm Thomson-Thorn.

And the components and machining part of the business could be taken over by an outside firm and relocated in the Chorley area.

It is understood negotiations on the fuzes side are well advanced and that it could move within weeks.

Although workers have been given no firm indication as to what the effect on jobs may be, union leaders have voiced concerns.

"There is a lot of uncertainty here at the moment. We're just waiting to be told what is happening," said a union official.

There are around 230 workers left on the site. An offer of voluntary redundancy which started last year has been taken up by 120 people out of a target figure of 160. "Obviously the worry is that if there are to be job losses they will be among people who do not want to go."

RO spokesman Marilyn Swann said a review of the site had been going on for some time and confirmed that its operations had been split into three separate units.

She said that the company was close to a position where it would start negotiating with unions and employees.

But she stressed that no final decisions on the future of the site had been taken.

The RO factory has been one of the most important employers in East Lancashire for more than 50 years.

At its height during the Second World War, more than 5,000 people worked there producing fuzes -- detonating mechanisms for shells.

In 1992 the firm announced 350 redundancies -- almost half the then workforce -- blaming the cuts on the end of the Cold War.

A year later, former senior civil servant Gordon Foxley was accused of accepting bribes to place orders with rivals of RO across Europe. Foxley was later jailed on corruption charges.

MPs and politicians claimed that Foxley's action may have cost the Blackburn site many lucrative orders and hundreds of jobs.