ROBBED of its prosperity by a decade of decline, the proud County Durham community of Spennymoor must be wondering how many more economic blows it can take.

Heavily reliant on major international manufacturing companies, the town has lost thousands of well-paid skilled jobs which may never be replaced.

At least 10,000 went in the 1980s and 1990s when Thorn Lighting, electrical giant Electrolux and cigarette maker Rothmans all cut posts.

On the Thorn site alone, jobs shrank from 8,000 to 2,000.

Electrolux pulled the plug on 650 when it shut its refrigeration plant, while Rothmans' closure two years ago accounted for another 450.

Black & Decker's permanent workforce has already shrunk to 1,000 - it was 2,300 in 2000 - with compulsory lay-offs and voluntary redundancies a regular event.

Dismayed local Labour politicians have laid the blame fair and square at the door of their own party bosses, asking how could the North fare so badly with so many influential Cabinet ministers based in the region?

Spennymoor Liberal Democrat councillor Ben Ord has called for a review of the Barnett Formula, which gives Scotland a disproportionate amount of Government money for job creation projects.

Traders in the town fear many businesses may not survive a further body blow on top of years of industrial collapse.

Dozens of small factories are heavily reliant on Black & Decker for their income and the knock-on effect of cuts at the plant will spell disaster for them.

One businessman, who asked not to be named, said: "I can't see how some of us will survive if something goes wrong at Black & Decker.

"We have taken one knock after another. It is getting to the point where we don't know where to turn.

"We are all small companies, unlike multinationals like Black & Decker, who can go anywhere in the world to find cheap labour. Everybody is very worried."

Councillor Bill Waters, the leader of Spennymoor Town Council and lead member for regeneration at Sedgefield Borough Council, knows the grim reality of redundancy at first hand, having being laid off from the Thorn site in 1984.

He said last night: "If the news about Black & Decker is true, it will be a disaster. Spennymoor has suffered over the years and this would be a terrible blow.

"It's not just the jobs at the plant. There would be a huge knock-on effect on the companies around the town who do small bits of work for them."