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."