FORMER director of Redditch casting firm BSA, Dave Milwood, said this week that its closure was out of his control.

Thirty-nine people were made redundant last Friday, including him.

Mr Milwood said: "There has been a long association with BSA and Redditch since before the war. I have worked for the firm for 25 years and was sad to see it close.

"It is the group which is in receivership and the closure was out of our control."

The BSA group, which had a long history of making high-quality castings for many industries in the UK and overseas, called in receivers Ernst and Young after hitting financial difficulties.

Following our story last week, a former employee contacted the Advertiser and Redditch Council's environmental department with concerns over the safety of the site.

Richard Powers, of Felton Close, Redditch said asbestos was buried underground, which would be dangerous if ever the site was sold for housing.

Head of environmental health at Redditch Council, Steve Webster, said: "When planning permission is applied for a contaminated land survey will be carried out on the site as a matter of course."

He said the value of the land could be affected, depending on the outcome, or whatever the plans were for its future. He added that the polluter or the new owners would pay for the land to be made good.

Any safety measures required would depend on whatever the site would be used for, for example car parking or housing. No-one at receivers Ernst and Young was available for comment before the Advertiser went to press.

Redditch MP Jacqui Smith, however, has promised to do all she can to get redundancy pay for BSA workers before Christmas after being contacted by a former employee following the job losses last Friday.

The workers were told redundancy payments would be paid out from central funds.

Ms Smith: "I will be doing what I can to help these workers secure the quick support they need from the Redundancy Payments Service."