Shock and dismay for town as jobs cull sinks in

Projecting massive power and menace from its bulky airframe, the low-level strike aircraft no longer commands the skies but still looms large in the many paintings and photographs hanging in the bar.

It served with the RAF and Royal Navy for more than 30 years, saw action in the first Gulf War, and is remembered with affection by those who built it.

News of the potential loss of almost 900 jobs at the BAE Systems factory up the road was met with dismay in the pub yesterday, but staff said trade had already begun to suffer after previous waves of redundancies.

Chef Victoria Fairburn said: “It’s pretty bad really. We do rely on British Aerospace for the food. We used to get quite big parties at Christmas and quite a few of them come in on their half-hour break.

“We used to be mega-busy on Thursday and Friday but we are noticing a change already. It’s really sad.”

Workers who may have called in at lunch time yesterday were instead at home passing on the news after the company gave them the rest of the day off to “understand the implications and discuss it with their families”.

Some were said to have been upset when the announcement was made yesterday, but there was also anger and a sense of shock when they emerged from the factory gates, with more than one saying they had been “sold down the river”.

Many were annoyed they had learned of the potential cuts through news media before their employers confirmed it, and claimed they had been given false hope of future contracts.

Maintenance technician Edward Potter, 29, who has worked at the site for 14 years, said: “It’s the end of manufacturing at Brough. There’s not been a lot of work for the last two years any way. We’ve been hanging on for a new Hawk order that’s never really materialised. They kept us believing we might get something. It’s not very nice when you find out from the media first.”

He added: “It’s not good for the area but it’s typical of what’s happening in the country as a whole.”

Gary Waddingham, 50, a lube operator who has worked at the plant for 24 years, said: “I haven’t really thought about getting a new job. We will manage. My family has been able to save up and pay off the mortgage, but other families will lose their homes.” Fellow worker Leigh Johnson, 42, said: “It has been a big shock. I’ve got a son in the middle of his A-levels. I can’t move but I will have to find a job. I’ve got a mortgage, I’m the breadwinner in the house and I have to do something.”

The cuts were the main topic of conversation in the town post office.

Allan Sneeston, of Springfield Avenue, took voluntary redundancy from the factory two months ago and sympathised with his former colleagues.

But he said Brough, which has expanded greatly in recent years, would not feel it as keenly as it might have when many residents depended on the factory for work.

“It’s devastating for the area. It will be hard but it won’t be as hard as it would have been a few years ago because now a lot of people who live here work in Leeds or York.”

He added: “It’s a shame for them but I was lucky; I was 55 in July so I got out.”