Work Starts On BMC Factory

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
KIRKBY, near LIVERPOOL, MAY 3

The British Motor Corporation officially "arrived" on Merseyside today when two 24-ton mechanical graders ploughed through a 50-acre wheat field which will become the site of a new £3,250,000 Fisher and Ludlow domestic appliance factory. The firm, which makes washing machines, dryers, and refrigerators, expects to be the first major concern to complete a factory in the Liverpool area under the Government's plan to take new industries to an area where 25,000 people are still unemployed.

The Ford Motor Company, Standard-Triumph, and the Vauxhall Motor Company have also announced plans to move into the area. When he performed the opening ceremony to start work on the factory here today, Mr John Rodgers, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, said that since 1949 more than 40,000 new jobs had been created on Merseyside, and still more was to be done.

JOBS FOR 1,500
Under the Government's scheme the Board of Trade can give practical help to assist firms moving to areas of high unemployment, and the board is paying for the building of the new B.M.C. factory. It will later be sold to the firm on deferred terms. An official of the firm said that initially about 30 acres of the site would be developed and it was expected that when work was completed the factory would provide jobs for 1,500 work people and the present output of domestic equipment would be doubled.

MORRIS WORKS NORMAL
Morris Motors, Cowley, were working as usual yesterday after an unofficial strike in the paint shop on Monday which caused 600 workers to be laid off.