TWO towns are reeling after job losses were announced.

Avon Rubber will cut 50 jobs at its factories in Melksham and Trowbridge.

The news comes only a few weeks after Ushers brewery closed and 200 people were made redundant.

This time it is middle management at Avon Technical Products and Avon Automotive who will lose their jobs.

Denis Crook, secretary of the Melksham factory's Transport and General Workers' Union branch, said for once jobs on the shop floor were secure but morale was still low.

He said: "Although we are pleased on one hand that we are not affected we are still sad at the job cuts in the company. There is still bad feeling here after job losses this year and other matters."

Those affected by the job losses are represented by the Association for Secretarial, Clerical and Technical staff. Employees at the new £19m headquarters at Hampton Park were told on Monday, October 9, and everyone at the Canal Road factory in Trowbridge knew by Friday.

Union representative Karen Jeffery now has 30 days to work with affected staff and management to thrash out a redundancy deal or new job.

She said: "We now want to make sure things are sorted out very quickly because there are a lot of anxious people here."

Melksham will lose 26 staff out of 450 and 24 will go from the Trowbridge automotive factory, which employs 300 people.

Mrs Jeffery said: "There may well be options for some staff to take other jobs within the factories. We will make sure we get the best package for people."

Avon Rubber business services director Bill Taylor said the decision had been a hard one.

He said: "I don't feel very happy, especially when so many people out there are good people and have worked together for many years."

He said the redundancies were unavoidable because of a reduction in car production, the weak Euro, intense pricing pressure and rising costs of raw materials.

"We had hoped to make the least impact, but these redundancies cannot be avoided," said Mr Taylor.

The latest redundancies are the second job cuts this year. In February, boss John Baumber was sacked and 30 office workers and engineering staff based at the new headquarters in Semington were made redundant.

Even the move to Semington from Bath Road in Melksham did not go smoothly. In November 1998 the plans were suspended because of delays over finalising details of the land sale.

Work started in February the following year and workers moved in a year later.