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| Job losses are a way of life in Warton, home to BAE Systems | Job losses are a way of life in Warton, home to BAE Systems |
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| The rumours of job losses had been circulating for weeks. In the church and the chip shops of Warton in Lancashire, home to BAE Systems’ 72-hectare (180-acre) production site, locals knew that the final Typhoons were due to roll off the production line next September – meaning uncertainty for the friends and relatives who work there. | The rumours of job losses had been circulating for weeks. In the church and the chip shops of Warton in Lancashire, home to BAE Systems’ 72-hectare (180-acre) production site, locals knew that the final Typhoons were due to roll off the production line next September – meaning uncertainty for the friends and relatives who work there. |
| The village has grown weary of news about job losses down the years: it is part and parcel of having Lancashire’s biggest private sector employer on your doorstep. Still, few expected as many as 750 jobs to be put at risk when the announcement finally came on Tuesday morning. The impact, locals fear, will be immediate. | The village has grown weary of news about job losses down the years: it is part and parcel of having Lancashire’s biggest private sector employer on your doorstep. Still, few expected as many as 750 jobs to be put at risk when the announcement finally came on Tuesday morning. The impact, locals fear, will be immediate. |
| “This is worrying for the people affected, and until people know what their future looks like, people just stop spending money,” said Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP for Fylde. He remembers when BAE announced 3,000 job losses in 2011 – half of which would be in Lancashire – and people simply stopped going out. “Everyone felt it. Shops, taxi firms, restaurants. Within the local economy, there will be an impact overnight.” | “This is worrying for the people affected, and until people know what their future looks like, people just stop spending money,” said Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP for Fylde. He remembers when BAE announced 3,000 job losses in 2011 – half of which would be in Lancashire – and people simply stopped going out. “Everyone felt it. Shops, taxi firms, restaurants. Within the local economy, there will be an impact overnight.” |
| The defence giant employs 6,000 people in Warton, about 10 miles south-east of Blackpool, where it assembles the Typhoon fighter jet on a heavily fortified aerospace site. Another 4,000 are employed at its site in Samlesbury, between Preston and Blackburn, making BAE by far Lancashire’s biggest private sector employer. Workers leaving the Warton site said they were not allowed to speak to the press on Tuesday afternoon, but locals reacted with a mixture of weary resignation and disappointment at the news. | The defence giant employs 6,000 people in Warton, about 10 miles south-east of Blackpool, where it assembles the Typhoon fighter jet on a heavily fortified aerospace site. Another 4,000 are employed at its site in Samlesbury, between Preston and Blackburn, making BAE by far Lancashire’s biggest private sector employer. Workers leaving the Warton site said they were not allowed to speak to the press on Tuesday afternoon, but locals reacted with a mixture of weary resignation and disappointment at the news. |
| “It is the employer, isn’t it? There’s nothing else,” said David Cookson, a retired farmer, enjoying a lunchtime pint at the Clifton Arms pub directly outside BAE’s Warton gates, where the quiet village life is occasionally disturbed by the ear-splitting roar of a fighter jet leaving its runway. Those with long memories barely blink at the noise – nor the fuss about job losses. | “It is the employer, isn’t it? There’s nothing else,” said David Cookson, a retired farmer, enjoying a lunchtime pint at the Clifton Arms pub directly outside BAE’s Warton gates, where the quiet village life is occasionally disturbed by the ear-splitting roar of a fighter jet leaving its runway. Those with long memories barely blink at the noise – nor the fuss about job losses. |
| “There used to be 10,000 workers here, now there’s five or six thousand,” said Cookson, 73. “I know a few of the lads who work there. People travel for miles to come and work here. I don’t think it’ll ever close, it’s just being made a little bit not as big as it was. What can you say? If they’re not selling their Eurofighters, they haven’t got the work. | “There used to be 10,000 workers here, now there’s five or six thousand,” said Cookson, 73. “I know a few of the lads who work there. People travel for miles to come and work here. I don’t think it’ll ever close, it’s just being made a little bit not as big as it was. What can you say? If they’re not selling their Eurofighters, they haven’t got the work. |
| “This happens all the time here. One minute they’re down on the bones of their arse, the next minute they’ve made orders for multimillions and multibillions of pounds. It’s always been like that. One minute they’re laying them off and then a week later they’re all back in as subcontractors.” | |
| In the mornings, Warton’s main thoroughfare, Lytham Road, is a sea of thousands of cars as workers arrive at the plant. At lunchtimes, said Cookson, BAE’s workers used to queue out of the door for a pint at the Clifton Arms. Not any more, he said: “It used to be mad here, but a few years ago the company said we can’t stop you having a drink at lunchtime but it won’t enhance your prospects. Once you couldn’t get in the door at lunchtime and now there’s just half a dozen in – the ones in suits, not the bodies on the shop floor.” | In the mornings, Warton’s main thoroughfare, Lytham Road, is a sea of thousands of cars as workers arrive at the plant. At lunchtimes, said Cookson, BAE’s workers used to queue out of the door for a pint at the Clifton Arms. Not any more, he said: “It used to be mad here, but a few years ago the company said we can’t stop you having a drink at lunchtime but it won’t enhance your prospects. Once you couldn’t get in the door at lunchtime and now there’s just half a dozen in – the ones in suits, not the bodies on the shop floor.” |
| At McColl’s convenience shop, over the road from the aerodrome, Sophie Bradley, 25, said the loss of hundreds of jobs would affect every business in the area. “I was sad when I heard. It’s going to be a big loss for the area and the businesses. A lot of people will be leaving the area,” she said. “Everybody in the village knows someone who works there, either a family member or friend.” | At McColl’s convenience shop, over the road from the aerodrome, Sophie Bradley, 25, said the loss of hundreds of jobs would affect every business in the area. “I was sad when I heard. It’s going to be a big loss for the area and the businesses. A lot of people will be leaving the area,” she said. “Everybody in the village knows someone who works there, either a family member or friend.” |
| As the final assembly line for the Typhoon, this otherwise-quiet Lancashire village has been at the centre of world events with its locally produced fighter jet being used to deadly effect against Islamic State in Syria and, more controversially, by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. | As the final assembly line for the Typhoon, this otherwise-quiet Lancashire village has been at the centre of world events with its locally produced fighter jet being used to deadly effect against Islamic State in Syria and, more controversially, by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. |
| Few villagers talk about that though. It is, after all, a big employer and a source of local pride: about 26,000 people attended a rare family open day at the aerospace site the last time BAE held one, in 2006. | Few villagers talk about that though. It is, after all, a big employer and a source of local pride: about 26,000 people attended a rare family open day at the aerospace site the last time BAE held one, in 2006. |