EAST Lancashire's aerospace industry will recover despite devastating redundancies at BAe Systems and Rolls Royce in East Lancashire this week, an expert said today.

Employees at Rolls Royce's Bankfield and Ghyll Brow sites in Barnoldswick were furious yesterday when they were told there would be 295 job losses which would come in to effect by next spring.

Earlier in the week BAe Systems axed 149 jobs at its Samlesbury site.

Rolls Royce, which employs 1,080 people, said it is looking at the possibility of closing its Ghyll Brow plant and concentrating production at Bankfield, as a direct result of the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre on September 11 due to the downturn in orders for civil aircraft.

But Dennis Mendoros, chairman of the North West Aerospace Alliance and a board member of the North West Development Agency, said the industry will recover and the funding is already in place for five key projects which will boost the aerospace industry.

He said: "We were shocked at the announcement and we are very concerned with the extent of the redundancies. We do appreciate the difficult and challenging situation they are going through but we believe it is only an interim thing and will last no longer than a couple of years maximum. "We want to believe that we will find a way to re-employ these people back in the aerospace industry. The North West Aerospace Alliance has made proposals to the North West Development Agency and they have already agreed on five major projects to give some comfort to the people being made redundant by giving them other employment opportunities and to re-establish the market during the interim period."

Details of the schemes will be announced at the next aerospace alliance meeting in Nelson on December 10.

Mr Mendoros said: "They will include the setting up of an innovation centre for aerospace excellence and mini consortiums of five or six companies which can access bigger packages of work to stabilise the market and minimise further redundancies and create more jobs. "It would also involve the retraining and skills upgrading of people such as employees from Rolls Royce or BAe Systems to give them the specific requirements of the new employers.

"This will be a very challenging situation for everybody in East Lancashire not just Barnoldswick. Rolls Royce is a major contributor to a lot of companies. We say that for every job in the aerospace industry there are at least another five jobs depending on it.

"But I am confident that we will ride this wave as we have done in the past and better days will come."

Gordon Prentice, MP for Pendle, has called on the Government to offer a helping hand to the aviation industry following the announcement of job losses at Rolls-Royce sites around the country.

The Labour backbencher said it was a 'body blow' for the regions concerned and he urged the government to help an 'industry in crisis'. During exchanges on forthcoming Commons business yesterday, Mr Prentice said: "We all understand the Government cannot force people back on to aeroplanes but there are things the Government can do and should be doing to help this high-tech, leading-edge industry which needs our help at the moment.''

The workers were less confident about their future and angry at the redundancies.

One male worker, who has been with the company 13 years and did not want to be identified, said: "It's not very good. We were expecting something but not so many job losses. I think they are just using this to bring plans forward that they already had in the pipe lines and then the next thing will be that they there are not enough people to do the work."

A fellow employee said at the end of his shift: "Nobody is happy. It's their livelihoods, their lives and there's a possibility I may be one of them."

Local shops and companies could also be affected by the downturn in business.

Alan Brown, owner of the Strand Service Station, Skipton Road, which faces Rolls Royce Bankfield site, said he fears the knock-on effect to smaller businesses in the area.

Mr Brown said: "When I heard the figures for the amount of jobs going I was shocked. At one point Rolls Royce used to have between 2,000 and 3,000 workers. This will certainly affect everyone locally and more so the smaller corner shops.

"There's one or two shops closed down in Skipton Road over the years and I feel for the others now like the bakers up the road. It will affect them because a lot of people from the factory go up there for their lunch. We may not be too bad because everyone will still need petrol so they will come in here.

"There used to be three lines of traffic coming out of those gates at the end of a shift. Soon it will be down to a trickle."

His views were echoed by John Ellis, who runs Sainty's bakery. He said: "We do get a quite a few of the contractors for Rolls Royce in here. We think it is going to affect our business but we are hoping it doesn't. I don't think there will be a shopkeeper in Barnoldswick that won't be affected by it but what can we do.

"We just have sit back and wait and see now."

A resident from Lower East Avenue, who did not want to be named because her husband and cousin are both employees at Rolls Royce, said the announcement of job losses was a big blow to everyone.

Her husband has worked for the firm for around 35 years.

She said: "It is going to affect a lot of people. The atmosphere down there is terrible and until we find out who is going and who isn't

it will carry on like that. Whatever happens it will be bad for someone. It's not fair that they have been made to wait for weeks to find out what was happening.

"There will be a knock-on effect like there was with the foot and mouth I would think and smaller businesses will also suffer."

Former employee of Rolls Royce and chairman of the parish council, Councillor Frank Neal, was shocked by the number of job losses and said the government needed to work with the Pendle partnerships to get investment in to the area and to look to diversifying industry.

He said: "I was made redundant from Rolls Royce in 1970 and I haven't done bad since. Except for three of us the rest were voluntary redundancies. It was a case a last in first out. I hope they don't base it on that system this time because it's not fair. They could lose good workers that have just started and keep those who are just there because they can't get another job.

"The skilled workforce at Barnoldswick is remarkable and just by one or two in national terms 'small firms' but to us 'big companies' making redundancies will hit enormously. The area is soon going to be desolate.

"There's lots of young people who are just married and have young families to support and have been earning better money there than they could anywhere else. They tend to base their whole life on what they can earn and buy houses which without that wage coming in they won't be able to afford. Even if they get jobs immediately they are still not likely to get as good a wage as at Rolls Royce.

"They have said the redundancies won't come in to effect until next year but in a way that's worse because everyone will be worried and automatically thinking it could be them. It is a tragedy."

Former employee Marie Thompson, of Skipton Road, said: "I used to work there as a cleaner. The news is really bad for Barnoldswick because it is the main employer. I think it will affect shops in the town as well because a lot of the workers come from Nelson and Skipton so they stop at the shops on their way to and from work."