They are employed by Covallen Engineering which has its factory in Lawton Road, and is a subsidiary of the international printing and engineering group McCorquodale and Company.

The redundancies which take effect from March 9^th follow full consultation with district officers of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers.

Mr. Reg Ward, the union’s district secretary said. 'We did have a meeting with the firm last week. About 30 workers are being made redundant on March 9. The redundancies are due to the recession, a lack of orders and profits. There has been full union consultation. The firm is offering full redundancy payments but obviously what else can we do about it in the circumstances?'

In company’s annual report, the chairman Mr. Alastair McCorquodale said that both its engineering companies, Covallen Engineering and Buckley, Myers and Taylor had entered the year with reasonably high order books, with the result that in the first half of the year, both companies earned small profits. 'Although profitability was just maintained in the second six months, the accelerating impact of the recession on the engineering industry has now left both companies short of work.'

He added: 'Strenuous efforts are being made to rectify this situation.'

Taxable profits for McCorquodale group to the year ending September 30 were £4.8m compared with £4.6m the previous year.