ONE third of the workforce at an Accrington based packaging company are set to lose their jobs.

Polestar Broadley, William Street, Clayton-le-Moors, will make the 30 redundancies because of adverse trading conditions in British manufacturing and packaging industries.

The job losses follow high level talks within the firm and with the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU).

Suggestions for redundancy were put to the workforce who voted to accept the formula.

The Deputy General Secretary of the GPMU, Tony Burke, said the cuts were to safeguard the future of the firm.

The East Lancashire branch of international printing company Polestar employs 100 people and the job cuts will be made across the board, involving shopfloor workers, office staff and management.

The news brings an end to rumours that Polestar intended to pull out of the town altogether because of the controversial plan to extend refuse disposal at the nearby Whinney Hill tip.

The firm, formerly Jas Broadley, has been in the town for 100 years and specialises in making labels for Nescafe and other well-known household products.

Mr Burke, of the GPMU, said he had been approached by senior management at the company and told of the tough time that the company was experiencing. He said: "We've been very concerned about the future of the Broadley plant for some time. We're disappointed this has resulted in job losses, but it's important the factory continued in production and hopefully now this will ensure the future viability of the site."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "I'm really concerned about the specifics of these job losses in Clayton-le-Moors and the state of manufacturing in my constituency and East Lancashire.

"Scarcely a day seems to go by without more manufacturing job losses in Hyndburn. I will redouble my efforts to get extra help for manufacturing and when Parliament returns next week I'll take this up with ministers."

Nobody from the company was available to comment.