Plaxtons workers today reacted with dismay.

Kevin Warters could not have received the news at a worse time. He, his wife Kezban and their three-year-old daughter, Yasemin, had to move out of their smoke-damaged home in Wilton Rise, Holgate, as a result of a chip-pan fire six weeks ago, renting a house in nearby Poppleton Road.

Kevin, a coachbuilder who also used to work at ABB, in York, and was later made redundant from Samsung heavy industries at Flaxton Moor, said: "Right now I'm looking at a message on a Plaxtons notice board from Wallace, the coach firm, thanking us for one of the best-built coaches it had ever had ever bought from us. We knew we were being benchmarked with other TransBus plants but we were under the impression that we were top for production, quality and potential and now this..."

Nightworker Nick Horsman, a 47-year-old Plaxtons vehicle builder, of Moorland Road, Fulford, who was made redundant from ABB in 1993, said: "This time I'll be on the scrapheap. At my age where the hell can I get a job now?

"Tenneco has shut down Monroe in York and even Nestl is unlikely to take on the likes of me full-time. I'm gutted."

Coach builder Stephen Gaines, of Bilsdale Close, York, who was also made redundant from ABB in 1993, said: "I'm gobsmacked. My wife, Tracy, is a part-time student and she looks after William, our three-year-old. I can't believe this is happening again."

"We knew that the bus market was not very strong but the rumour was that TransBus would make 20 per cent cuts across the board."

Updated: 12:53 Friday, May 04, 2001