NEARLY 400 jobs are to be axed at three local firms.

And the grim news comes ironically in the week that the Government announced record employment levels and shortening "dole" queues around the country.

The biggest blow locally will hit British Paper Board's (BPB) Radcliffe mill which is to shut at the end of the year with 285 redundancies.

The announcement climaxed months of uncertainty for the James Street workforce after the business - which traded as Radcliffe Paper Mill for more than 85 years - was earlier put up for sale.

Wednesday's shock news came only days after engineering company Mawson Taylor, based in nearby Milltown Street, said it was to make 45 of its 70-strong workforce redundant.

The third blow for the borough's manufacturing workers came yesterday when it was revealed that the polythene and paper bag manufacturers Bibby and Baron look set to axe around 60 workers.

Just over a year ago the business, with headquarters in Dumers Lane, Bury, shed 80 jobs.

Yesterday, Bury South MP Ivan Lewis was locked in talks with workers and management at BPB in Radcliffe.

Later, he said he wanted the company to re-open negotiations with the BPB management team for a revised management buy-out.

"The local authority would be behind the management buy-out option as would the unions, so we avoid this disastrous situation," he said.

"We believe this is a viable and realistic alternative to closure." The firm blame the closure on "difficult market conditions, exacerbated by the continuing strength of sterling and over-capacity in the industry."

Last November, BPB put the business up for sale but were unable to find a buyer.

Stunned shop steward Barry Lindley of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU) said: "I'm sick. Everyone is devastated.

"I think the workforce have been treated very unfairly. Some of the workers have been here for 45 years. It's just another nail in Radcliffe's coffin."

The job losses at mouldings company Mawson Taylor are blamed on the decision to transfer the Radcliffe plant's unprofitable compression moulding operation to a sister site in the Midlands.

Defending the move, operations director Mr Paul Sloan said: "It is a last-ditch attempt to save as many jobs as we can. Without the transfer, both sites would be forced to close, meaning the loss of 145 jobs."

But AEEU shop steward Paul Crowshaw said: "We were aware of the threat of redundancies, but never for one minute expected so many."

Meanwhile, Bibby and Baron say they have entered into consultation with the workforce over what it terms a "major restructuring" which could mean the current 220-strong workforce being reduced by 25 per cent.

A company statement said: "Over the past 18 months, increasingly fierce competition from continental and Far Eastern competitors, due principally to the strength of sterling, has seriously impacted on the business."

A disappointed Bury North MP David Chaytor said he would be meeting workers and management in a bid to have the redundancy plans amended.

"I am very sorry to hear the news. There is no question that manufacturing is suffering at the moment, partly due to the high value of the pound, which is affecting exports, and also because of the economic collapse in Russia and the Far East," he said.

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