THE bad news turned even graver today as Littlewoods confirmed that, as well as the 378 jobs going at two of their Bolton depots, 199 more jobs will be lost at Blackrod.

Instead, there may be some jobs on offer at Littlewoods' return centre locally or at the firm's new £45 million complex in Shaw, near Oldham.

While it is easy to understand that major company's have to change and develop in order to survive, we find it hard to share the company's optimism that it is "confident of finding new jobs for most of our colleagues affected by this decision."

Apart from the 196 employees on temporary or fixed term contracts who will be completely redundant, it is hard to imagine many of the staff being willing - or able - to travel to Shaw.

Jobs in the local mail-order companies, whether full-time or part-time, have become a way of financially under-pinning family income in many homes. And it has been the convenience of the locations involved which has been a major attraction.

Hundreds of local women especially, many of whom have followed mothers and sisters into local catalogue companies, have long relied on them for work. It has been the natural successor to jobs in the old textile mills and, like the mills in which some of these companies are housed today, it spawned a rich social and cultural life.

The employees played together - in rounders' teams , for example - and stayed together as friends.

So, it's perfectly right that we mourn what is for many of them the passing of an important part of Bolton's working life, of its industrial heritage. We can only hope that other jobs in more modern industries like leisure may help diffuse the situation for the Littlewoods workers, to offer some hope in an otherwise gloomy situation.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.