Darlington is still considered the gateway town for the Tees Valley, despite recent news that Cleveland Bridge may shed 240 jobs.

That follows on the Government's refusal to consider the town as a location for some of its offices, the closure of Torrington's engineering firm and the loss of the Rothman's cigarette factory.

Cleveland Bridge blames a sparse order book, although it is still involved in a £60m contract for the new Wembley Stadium and the world's longest cable-stay bridge, the Rion Antirrion, in Greece. The proposal is for the loss of 75 white collar and 165 blue collar jobs between June and October.

Darlington MP, Alan Milburn, who met with the management and the borough council last week, said: "It is a serious body blow, but it is not a death knell.

"It is always bad news when people lose jobs, particularly a very successful, high quality company like Cleveland Bridge.

"I have pledged my support where winning contracts may require Government assistance and we are discussing new employment opportunities for what are highly skilled people.

A company spokesman said it was bidding for several large bridge contracts across the world, but none had gone past the planning stage.

Darlington council leader John Williams said he was confident the company was going to bounce back. "It's quality will win through."

Referring to the knock-back of Darlington's bid to attract more Government jobs, he said "The council is still working behind the scenes to try to bring that about. It won't be easy and no-one is predicting we will be successful.

"We have all party support for the regeneration and future economic success of the town.

Darlington councillor David Lyonette is also the group chairman of the Tees Valley Strategic Joint Committee.

He said: "We are looking for new markets and any help we can give to the manufacturing and heavy industry in the Tees Valley."

Contacts had been made with Job Centre Plus, the Learning and Skills Council and Business link to try to reduce the number of redundancies at Cleveland Bridge before June.

He hoped the company could win part of a European contract for super aircraft carriers which was due to come to the North-East.

"It has risen like a pheonix over the years," he pointed out.