South Essex was today counting the cost of 210 job losses as part of a programme of cutbacks at electricity company TXU Energi.

Powergen, which bought TXU Energi in December last year, announced plans to shed the staff at its retail centre in London Road, Rayleigh, along with 751 workers across the UK.

Rayleigh is the second worst hit area in the UK and it is feared that the large job losses may have a big impact on the town.

Tony Humphries, Conservative councillor for Rayleigh Central, said: "This is very sad news, particularly for those workers who are affected and my sympathy goes out to them as they must be devastated.

"We are working to aid growth in the town, so any loss of the workforce is horrendous."

A regional spokeswoman for Powergen said that the job losses would be on-going throughout the year. She said: "We will be cutting the 210 jobs in phases through the year, so there will be no sudden off-loading.

"All those who will be losing their positions will have the opportunity to look into relocating elsewhere in the country within Powergen.

"Everyone affected will be given counselling and we hope that all redundancies will be on a voluntary basis."

The remaining workers at the site in London Road work for a different company, called Vertex, who will not be affected by the cuts.

Published Tuesday, January 21, 2003

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