A TOWN council is appealing for special measures after one of the area’s biggest employers laid off around a quarter of its workforce.

Clitheroe town council wants to secure funding to generate growth in the area and combat redundancies made by Ribblesdale factory Hanson Cement.

The factory had to make 30 workers redundant at the end of last year and also announced that production would have to be cut by 30 per cent.

The job losses were caused as a result of falling demands for cement and changes to European Union carbon trading rules, which mean companies will have to pay for pollution permits.

The council said it was very concerned by the news as it was one of the main employers in the town and called for the government to consider making the Ribble Valley an Enterprise Zone as part of its Plan for Growth.

Gary Young, general manager at Hanson Cement, said the construction industry had been hit particularly hard by the recession and was taking longer than other sectors to recover.

He said: “One of the reasons for the redundancies was to look after the jobs of the remaining people at both our Ribblesdale and north Wales sites.

“The industry is going to drop again this year because the government is not backing schools and hospital projects but it should increase slowly in 2013.

“Construction has been massively depressed and it is taking a long time to come out of this.”

He said that the industry would not pick up until the government started to make investments in this kind of business but said no more redundancies were on the cards.

He said: “We have set ourselves up and we don’t anticipate things will drop away any more.”

In responce to the town council’s request the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it had already provided £12,879,177 of funding to help boost economic growth in Lancashire.

It also announced it will be making a second round of grants available to the area which would make a positive impact on jobs in East Lancashire.