A UNION leader was today seeking meetings with employees and management at a BAe design and manufacturing plant near York, following shock news that it is to close.

BAe Systems Avionics, just outside Sutton-on-the-Forest, will shut in the final quarter of this year, with the loss of all 50 jobs.

The closure is part of a nationwide axing of 3,800 white collar and production jobs - including 850 at Brough in East Yorkshire - by the aerospace giant BAe following its merger with Marconi last year.

A spokesman said the Sutton factory, where electro-optical equipment was made, mainly employed engineering plus secretarial and support staff. It was possible some employees might be able to relocate to other sites elsewhere in the country.

He said the main reason for the closure had been a diminishing workload and an increasingly competitive marketplace. He said the order book had been insufficiently strong. The equipment made at Sutton was used in aircraft but also in landing systems and at border controls.

Malcolm Bushby, regional officer for the AEEU union, with almost 30 members at Sutton, said there was no realistic prospect of fighting the closure, and his main aim would be to ensure the best redundancy terms and assistance was given to members.

He said the closure - coming so soon after the announcement that Monroe's shock absorber factory in York is to shut - was a big disappointment and would come as a blow to staff at Sutton, many of whom were highly-skilled specialists.

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh said she regretted the closure, and would be writing to BAe Chief Executive John Weston to press for redundancies to be kept to a minimum and to ensure that those who wished to transfer to a different site were helped as much as possible.