TROUBLED Lancashire tour operator MyTravel was today urged to come clean over where it plans to cut up to 700 of its 15,000 UK staff.

Today, the company refused to disclose whether the axe would fall on its operations in Accrington and Helmshore, which together employ more than 500 people.

The group, formerly known as Airtours, said the decision had been taken to cut costs against a background of "difficult and uncertain" market conditions.

A union recruitment campaign was today being stepped up after the firm said it was entering into a consultation period with employees which may end up with 700 redundancies.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said he was very concerned by the news.

"They didn't have the courtesy to tell me about it or consult me," he said. "I'll be taking it up with the company to try to make sure no more of my constituents lose their jobs."

Acting leader of Hyndburn Council Jean Battle said: "We need to know where the redundancies will be. We hope they're not all going to be in Hyndburn or across East Lancashire. It's worrying. We need some reassurance that it's going to be evenly spread."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said he was very concerned by the news. "They didn't have the courtesy to tell me about it or consult me," he said. "I shall be taking it up with the company to try to make sure that no more of my constituents lose their jobs."

Staff based at Accrington are hopeful the operation will avoid the cuts.

One of the company's managers at the Globe Centre, who did not want to be named, said: "At the moment they've only sent notification of the redundancies to head office at Rochdale. None of the staff here have been notified of any redundancies. Hopefully, because we are distribution and quite a profitable part of the group, it won't affect us."

The GMB trade union, however, is now redoubling its efforts to sign up MyTravel staff before any firm redundancies are announced.

Regional official Neil Holden said the union had already started to make inroads into increasing its membership at the company.

"We warned the staff redundancies would happen," he said. "We'll now be going back to all MyTravel operations in the North West to advise staff that now is the time they need to belong to a trade union.

"While we do not have negotiating rights with the company, we can represent individual members if, for example, they feel they have been unfairly selected for redundancy."

The redundancies will come on top of 2,800 jobs lost at MyTravel over the past 18 months.

The company reported massive losses in November of £72.8million for the 12 months to September 30 and forced the departure of most of its senior management team. David Crossland, the Burnley travel agent who founded the group in the 1970s, axed plans for retirement as chairman to rebuild the company's fortunes.