THE leader of Barrow Borough Council has issued a warning of more than 1,000 redundancies across Furness this year and accused the county's jobs-creation agency, of which he himself is a director, of "abject failure."

Coun Terry Waiting said "council intelligence" projected 1,000 redundancies in the Furness peninsula over the next 12 months, and that he had been told by BAE-Systems that 500 jobs could go by Easter due to a shortage of work, reports Ellis Butcher.

Rounding on the Cumbria Inward Investment Agency designed to lure firms to the county he said it had failed to bring in sufficient jobs or attract a major employer to Furness.

He said Cumbria County Council's economic strategy had been too pre-occupied with foot-and-mouth and giving too much attention to areas with "marginal or trivial" economic problems.

Coun Waiting described Furness as the "sick man of Cumbria" due to it having 40 per cent of working age people out of work, and that it was facing "dark days."

CCIIA chief executive Jack Stopforth refused to respond to Coun Waiting's claims fearing a "knee jerk" reaction, and said a statement would be issued by the CIIA next week.

BAE Systems spokesman Mike Smith said contrary to reports, it had not admitted to Mr Waiting that 500 people could lose their jobs.

January 17, 2003 09:30