FORMER workers of a County Durham cement works say the £22m it could cost to close the site could have been better spent saving their jobs.

Almost 150 jobs were lost when Lafarge UK ended production at its Eastgate plant, in Weardale, in early August.

But bosses estimating the total cost of decommissioning the site are looking at a figure of £21.8m.

Billy Wilthew, who was GMB union shop steward at the plant where he worked as a quarry operator for 37 years, said the potential cost of closure was a kick in the teeth for former workers.

He said: "It is too late now, but I still think the company could have looked at reducing costs by reducing work at Weardale, by running just one of the two kilns.

"To think it could cost that much money to close the site is a real kick in the teeth because the point of closure was to save the company money.

"We were making about £13.5m profit a year, producing top quality cement and had 30 years of reserves and skilled workers, so to spend so much money closing is difficult to understand."

The estimate includes redundancy costs of £3.4m, relocation costs of £1m, redundancy counselling at £146,550, community and PR at £171,000 and £5m for demolition.

But a LaFarge spokesperson said: "For the benefit of the entire company and the 1,500 people we employ in the UK the company has to remain competitive.

"It is a sad fact that we had to close the Weardale site and concentrate on our bigger operations. The total cost of decommissioning is not clear yet. It will depend on how the site will be used in future as to what needs to be done there.

"It will cover LaFarge's significant commitments to help employees, such as continuing to run a job shop, and to revert the land to a greenbelt site."