A DELEGATION of councillors was due to meet the receivers at Buoyant Upholstery today, in a bid to stave off further redundancies at one of Pendle's biggest firms.

The aim of the meeting at the Nelson firm was to investigate the prospects of the furniture business being sold as a going concern.

On Wednesdayreceivers Arthur Andersen, announced 170 of the company's 450 workforce were being made redundant. The priorities now are to save the jobs of the remaining staff and finding alternative work for those who have already lost their jobs.

East Lancashire MP Gordon Prentice, has raised the latest job losses in his Pendle constituency at the Lear Corporation and Buoyant Upholstery in the Commons.

He has called on the Government to hold a special debate on the manufacturing industry to outline what it plans to do to prevent further such closes.

As well as the all-party delegation of councillors and senior council officers, a representative from the county's jobs creation agency, Enterprise plc, was also due to attend the meeting to see if it could help with job and counselling advice. Stephen Barnes, Pendle Council's chief executive, said: "We hope to establish that it will be possible for the business to be sold as a going concern and we will strongly encourage the receiver to achieve this outcome.

"This is the best possible outcome for the remaining employees at the company. We will also be seeing if we can give any special assistance to those made redundant.

"In addition, we will also be sending a message to the Government for special assistance, that is assisted area status, to help high manufacturing areas such as Pendle."

Almost half the jobs in Pendle are in manufacturing, one of the highest concentrations in England. The area was also hit by the announcement before Christmas that Colne's biggest firm, Lear Corporation, is to close this year with the loss of up to 350 jobs.

Mr Barnes said there was not much the council could do about the national economic situation such as the strong pound, which is hitting manufacturing across the country.

Councillor Azhar Ali, leader of the council's opposition Labour group and ward councillor, said: "It is obviously a very difficult time for the workers. Rest assured that as a council we will not leave any stone unturned to help save the jobs."

Buoyant went into administrative receivership along with its parent company Moorfield Holdings, on Tuesday.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.