UNION leaders say they have secured a reduction in the number of job losses at engineering company Cleveland Bridge.

The Darlington firm announced last month that it was planning to cut 240 jobs because of a lack of projects.

But last night, that figure had fallen to 209, according to the GMB union.

Jimmy Skivington, from the union, said talks were held with senior management yesterday.

He said: "We have managed to get the numbers reduced, but there is bad news there because there is not much hope of saving the majority of those redundancies. That is pretty clear.

"The company has already agreed to post notices to the effect that they will be looking for volunteers. That is a plus for us."

He said he was told that this year and next looked bleak, but that no more redundancies were likely.

He said: "They have confirmed that they will pick up enough work to keep the workforce that they have left."

No one was available from Cleveland Bridge to comment.