ONE of Accrington's best-known employers has announced it is pulling out of the town for good -- just a year after council bosses gave it £140,000 in incentives to stay.

Now the 50 remaining workers at the firm face a bleak Christmas as council chiefs defended their decision to splash out the cash last year.

Opposition councillors and an MP both criticised the move to support Leoni Wiring Services, saying the council should have demanded the company pledge its future to the borough.

Union bosses today said managers at Leoni had told them they could not justify keeping the plant open when they could employ people in Eastern Europe for 50p an hour.

Leoni, better known as Rists, used to occupy a massive plant in Pickup Street. But last June, just months after being bought out by Leoni, it was announced that the site was to close, with the loss of 560 jobs.

The firm only agreed to keep around 60 workers when the council offered a unit on the Altham Industrial Estate and helped pay business rates for 18 months. Councillors claimed the package was worth around £140,000.

Workers were told of their fate on Thursday. The site will close in May -- exactly 18 months after the council offered the cash to stay.

GMB Union spokesman Graham Coxon said: "We got the news on Thursday afternoon. It is another kick in the teeth to the workforce.

"Basically, they said the site was running at a loss and they couldn't justify keeping it open when they could employ people in Eastern Europe for 50p an hour.

"They claimed to have put £70,000 into the site in the last year but they are leaving as soon as support from the council dries up.

"We still believe they bought the site for the order book and not the staff. That was obvious when they tried to shut the first site down so soon after taking over.

"Telling the staff they are a wonderful, motivated people rings a bit hollow now they have kicked them in the teeth twice."

Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe today stood by the council's decision to offer the support to Leoni.

He said: "We had to do all we could at the time to try and keep a big employer in the town and keep some jobs.

"We were dealing with more that 500 people losing their jobs. This time is a lot less but it still means 50 people face a bleak Christmas and I am very, very disappointed with the company.

"It does show how fragile our economy is and how easily the ill winds of recession elsewhere can affect us.

"We are now committed to bringing in more jobs from other sectors of industry to create a diverse, stronger economy.

"We could not insist they stay because they would not guarantee that. We have managed to keep 50 jobs in the area for another 18 months after the first closure, and at £3,000 a job, I think that is worthwhile."

But Leader of the Labour group Ian Ormerod, claimed the council had been left with egg on its face.

His group voted against the support package when it was proposed at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the council.

Coun Ormerod said: "We feared this would happen and it has. There is nothing triumphant in us being able to say it, but not only have we lost jobs, but £140,000 of taxpayers' money has been thrown down the drain as well.

"Our concern is that other companies could hold us to ransom now and tell us they will leave unless we help them.

"It has opened the floodgates and the council now has egg on its face."

Huncoat councillor Steve Walsh said: "I am appalled. These people will have to go through the misery of being made redundant for the second time in a year.

"When the council gave the firm the money, they should have insisted it commit itself to the borough."

When the axe first fell on Leoni last year, a massive march was organised from the plant to the town centre.

Thousands of people joined the march to listen to speakers including Hyndburn MP Greg Pope.

He said: "I always thought that the cheap rates and rent deal by Hyndburn Council was a mistake .

"Essentially this multinational company kicked 500 workers in Hyndburn in the teeth and the council then said 'here's lot of money' to keep 50 jobs.

'I am not at all surprised that this attempt to bribe the company failed to work and that it has kicked the people of Hyndburn in the teeth again.

"I am all in favour of anything that can be done to keep people in jobs, but I was afraid this would never work."

Former Hyndburn Mayoress and ex-Leoni employee Sandra Hayes, who was made redundant when the firm shut last year, said: "This doesn't surprise me. It is very sad for the people who have now been told they are losing their jobs twice in 12 months."

Nobody at the company was available for comment.