CLOSE on 500 staff at Bromsgrove's stricken United Engineering Forgings Factory in Aston Fields are likely to be out of a job by April.

The grim news was given in a letter to the workforce last Thursday by Myles Halley, for the administrators - KPMG.

He said now more than half the firm's customers have found other suppliers, and confirmed that unless a buyer can be found the factory will close at the end of March.

"The administrators believe however, that it is extremely unlikely a buyer will be found between now and March," he said.

But in an eleventh hour bid to save the firm, formerly Garringtons, Bromsgrove District Council has written again to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewett, urging her to step in with financial support to keep the company running.

Council leader Nick Psirides, (Con, Norton), said: "It is very sad and the council is determined to do all it can to prevent closure.

"We have already agreed to give serious consideration to any future application for business rate relief and confirm that promise."

Town MP Julie Kirkbride said she is "angry and upset" at the decision to close the firm at the end of March, and her sympathy went out to employees who are set not only to lose their jobs, but much of their hard-earned pension entitlement.

She too is waiting for a response from Patricia Hewett to her letter in which she asked for her help to find a buyer.

Urging the administrators to redouble their efforts to find a purchaser, she reminded them the council will not give permission for the site to be sold for housing.

Labour group leader Peter McDonald, (Uffdown and Waseley), said: "We are very disappointed and we will work with anybody up to the eleventh hour to secure a buyer.

In its heyday 25 years ago when it boasted being the largest drop forgings plant in Europe Garringtons employed more than 3,500 staff.