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<meta name="Description" content="A plant making car window and door seals will close with 246 job losses as the work is transferred abroad." />
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Saturday, 30 September 2006, 10:05 GMT 11:05 UK
<a name="startcontent"></a>
<h2>Job losses as company relocates</h2>


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		<img height="152" hspace="4" align="left" vspace="4" border="0" width="203" alt="Cooper Standard, Maesteg" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42148000/jpg/_42148716_jobs_203_bbc.jpg" />
	
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<B>Around 250 jobs are being lost at a factory manufacturing car parts at Maesteg, south Wales.</B>
<P>
Cooper Standard Automotives plans to close its plant by December 2007, transferring the work to France and Poland, according to Bridgend Council.
<P>
In a statement, the council said it understood the reason for the planned closure was reduced customer demand.
<P>
The council and the Welsh Assembly Government said they were "disappointed" to learn of the closure.
<!-- E SF -->
<P>
Bridgend Council leader, Councillor Cheryl Green, said: "This is sad news for the employees and their families. 
<P>
"Basically jobs are being moved elsewhere in Europe and this is happening unfortunately all over now," she added.
<P>
"This is just the last in a series of manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the Bridgend area over the last number of years."
<P>
The council said 246 employees would be affected by the closure.
<P>
The company once employed 600 people but has been scaling down for the past 18 months.
<P>
An assembly government spokesperson said: "Officials from the Department for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks have supported the company in a number of areas over the years.
<P>
"More recently (the officials) have been in dialogue with them regarding the identification and implementation of cost-savings measures through a series of improvement initiatives.
<P>
"We are very disappointed with this announcement and will continue to work closely with both the company and the employees to look at what further support can be provided."
<P>



    
        
            <!-- S IBOX -->
            <p />
            
            
                    


	&quot;<i>We need support in Maesteg badly to recover from this sort of position&quot;</i>



            
                    


	<br /><b>Councillor William Teesdale</b><br />

            
            <br />
            
            <!-- E IBOX -->
        
    


<P>
Ms Green said the council would also be doing all it could to help by working with the company and other partners to form a redundancy response team.
<P>
The team would informing those directly affected about alternative job opportunities, training options, benefits and other support. 
<P>
Ms Green said the company was a "big employer" in the area.
<P>
"There's going to be a big impact on some families - you might even get some families with up to four people working at that plant," she said.
<P>
The plant is in a division of the global company manufacturing weather seals for car windows and doors.
<P>
Bridgend councillor William Teesdale, whose Maesteg West ward includes the factory, said: "It's quite a blow. It's a lot of jobs going in a town of this size.
<P>
"We need support in Maesteg badly to recover from this sort of position. These are jobs that people don't have to travel for."
<P>
<b>'Job blow'</b>
<P>
The Welsh Conservatives' economic development spokesman Alun Cairns said the job losses were worrying.
<P>
He added: "This is terrible news. It's yet another job blow to a community that depends on these sort of jobs in the manufacturing sector.
<P>
"This is extremely worrying because it takes us beyond the number of 3,000 manufacturing jobs lost since the WDA were wound up earlier this year.
<P>
"If this pattern continues our manufacturing sector won't exist for much longer."
<P>
Responding to Mr Cairns' claim 3,000 jobs have been lost since the WDA was merged into the assembly government,  Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies said: "Official figures show employment in Wales is at a record high, including many hi-tech jobs. 
<P>
"However, we do not take any job losses lightly."
<P><!-- E BO --><!-- E BO --><br>

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        <b>RELATED INTERNET LINKS</b><br />
        
            <a href="http://www.bridgend.gov.uk/Web1/groups/public/documents/webserver/index2.hcst">Bridgend Council </a><br />
        
            <a href="http://www.cooperstandard.com/us/en/index.asp">Cooper Standard Automotive </a><br />
                    	
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