WORKERS facing the axe at East Lancashire's last remaining major footwear manufacturer are being thrown a lifeline by a Rossendale company.

Bosses at kitchen and bedroom manufacturer J&J Ormerod are offering jobs to workers recently made redundant from Bacup footwear firm Suttons.

Earlier this month bosses at E Sutton & Son Ltd announced that 140 jobs were set to be axed.

Bosses at the Riverside site blame intense competition from low-cost imports for a recent downturn that has seen the company lose more than £1million in the last year.

J&J Ormerod chairman Allan Greenhalgh, who operates the business from Lee Mill in Stacksteads, said: "Over the next three months we expect to have new vacancies and there should be more to come in the months ahead. So we would like to hear from anyone at Suttons who is working their notice and on the lookout for another job in Rossendale.

"While we appreciate the efforts being made at Futures Park, it seems the traditional industries and workforce of Bacup are being ignored by politicians and government agencies.

"Unless something is done to improve the infrastructure, especially the terrible road access from Rawtenstall, I fear that manufacturing at this end of the valley will eventually become a museum piece."

Angela O'Gorman, personnel manager at Sutton's, said: "We are still in the 90-day consultation period."

J &J Ormerod personnel manager John Rigby can be contacted on 01706 877877.