MORE than 1,300 Fylde insurance workers breathed a sigh of relief this week at the news their jobs were safe.

As French insurance giant Axa announced 2,000 job-cuts nationwide in the wake of its takeover of Guardian Royal Exchange, it pledged to keep the Lytham GRE office as one of its three main bases in the UK.

At most, said company spokesman David Ross, Lytham would lose 30 administrative jobs by early retirement or natural wastage over the next two years: "Lytham will be a major centre in the UK for the day to day financial running of the business," he said.

The news ends months of uncertainty at the Ballam Road site which handles most of GRE's life assurance and pensions business as well as being a major information technology centre.

Fylde MP Michael Jack has had two meetings with bosses at Axa and its UK arm Sun Life over the past few months to press the case for Lytham's importance as a specialist centre with a highly computer-skilled workforce.

"I'm very relieved for Lytham GRE and the townspeople will be as well," he said. "I've had a lot of tradespeople asking if GRE would be staying so they will be heartened.

"But now Lytham has to work very hard to make its new neighbours, Axa Sun Life, as welcome as they did GRE. Town-company relationships are something we all have to work on to make sure the company knows their presence is valued."

Axa has yet to make an announcement about its UK life assurance business, which could mean job-changes for some Lytham workers.

But the news is not so good for other Axa Sun Life offices in the region - Kendal is worst hit, closing with the loss of 410 jobs, along with Lancaster and Liverpool. Morecambe, however, will remain as a call-centre site and Bolton a main base for commercial claims business.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.