THE fragile economy of Weardale has been hit by a double whammy with one of its major employers announcing redundancies, and another expected to follow suit next week.

William Cook George Blair, of Stanhope, which employs 300 people supplying components for the defence industry, revealed it was looking to make 40 staff redundant, with cement firm Blue Circle believed to be about to unveil job losses at their Eastgate plant.

The announcements come as a major blow to the community, which county Councillor John Shuttleworth described yesterday as "in need of regeneration".

"There are stories about jobs losses regularly in Weardale, but precious few about job creation," he said.

"The dale is in need of Government help to regenerate but, unfortunately, we're not seeing much of it."

Phil Kite, managing director of Blair, said: "These redundancies have been caused by one of our customers transferring work to Mexico because of the strength of sterling.

"The figure we have mentioned is 40, but we are hopeful, following discussions with staff and unions, we can reduce that number.

"At present, there is a £2m investment programme on-going at the site and we will continue building for the future at our Stanhope site."

A year ago the company was celebrating landing a £50m MoD contract to supply tank tracks for CVR(T)s and Warriors.

The results of a three- month review of production at Blue Circle is expected to be revealed to staff next week.

It is believed that the number of redundancies could be as high as 70 of the 180 staff, with production severely reduced.

The group recently said that "a reduction in capacity" remained an option of its review of production at its Weardale plant.

But although Blue Circle spokesman Alistair Gale confirmed the review had been completed, he said no decisions had yet been taken and "the findings were still being assessed".

The review came a month after Blue Circle narrowly saw off a hostile £3.65bn takeover bid from French rival Lafarge, and the company said that as many as 350 redundancies would be sought nationwide over two years