By Sara Oliver and Joanne Kelly

THERE was good news for staff at Bowyers in Trowbridge this week, but bad news for the town's employment prospects as a whole, for neither of the serious bidders for the giant Ushers site wants to bring more jobs to the town.

Meanwhile, staff at Avon Rubber in Melksham and Trowbridge are waiting for the details of redundancy packages, after the firm announced last week it is to cut 50 jobs.

Bowyers announced this week that despite losing £10m-worth of contracts to supply sausages to Marks and Spencer and Somerfield in August, there will be no job losses.

Carole Gunston, spokesman for Pork Farms Bowyers, based in Nottingham, said the company was disappointed about the loss of contacts but pleased that no jobs would be lost.

"The transfer of this business is in progress and will be completed by the New Year," she said.

"People working on those machines have been moved to other areas on site. We do not expect any further cuts for the rest of this year."

The company is working to replace the business lost, and moving work to Wiltshire from factories in the north of England

An announcement is expected within a fortnight about the new owner of the historic Ushers Brewery site.

Both shortlisted buyers want to put houses, or a mix of houses and shops, on the town centre site.

The identity of the buyer will not be revealed until a planning application goes in to West Wiltshire District Council, probably next month, but both bidders are said to be major names.

Not one of the 11 bids for the Rectory and Brewery sites was from a brewery company.

The deadline for bids was in July, and the agents have spent the last three months looking at the schemes in detail and evaluating them to see if they are viable.

Anthony Horton, of agents Gerald Eve, said site owners InnSpired was keen to see the sale go through swiftly, and to ensure that the chosen scheme met the district council's requirements for the Ushers site.

He said: "They are keen that this does not drag on for ages. It did attract a lot of interest. It is a windfall site and there was no planning brief and no planning guidance because it was never envisaged that it would become available."

The winning scheme will have to take into consideration the listed buildings on the Brewery site, and how they can be retained and re-used.

Union officials at Avon Rubber have started negotiations after job losses were announced last week.

Those affected by the job losses are represented by the Association for Secretarial, Clerical and Technical staff.

A 30-day consultation period has been set and union representative Karen Jeffery said a redundancy deal will be worked out.

She said staff had been anxious about the news and most were hoping a deal or new jobs would be sorted out very quickly.

"There may be options, but we want to make sure we get the best package for people," she added.