THE first waves of redundancy will hit the doomed Monroe factory in York this September when the last shock absorber comes off the production lines.

Owner Tenneco Automotive haS confirmed that the complex is to shut by the end of the year, with the production of axles and other car parts being wound down through the autumn.

Bryn Jones, of City of York Council's economic development unit, said options for keeping the works open had been explored over the past few months by the council, the Department of Trade and Industry, North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council, Yorkshire Forward and the company, but unfortunately it had proved impossible.

Now the focus was on working with Yorkshire Forward and the York Inward Investment Board to see what alternative employment possibilities there might be at the 18-acre site.

Roy Templeman, director of environment and development services, said that, with a shortage of employment land in the city, the council wants the site to be used to create alternative employment if at all possible.

Planning permission for a change of use would be needed before any housing development could take place on the site, he added.

When the closure proposals were announced in January, the company blamed the decision on general over-capacity in European business, customers moving business to low-cost markets and the strength of sterling.

Plant manager Tony Smith says now that redundancy payments substantially greater than statutory requirements have been agreed, and the first 40 voluntary redundancies will take effect on September 1.

Another 20 will go on September 15 and then there will be 140 compulsory redundancies on September 29, when the last shock absorber will be made.

He said there would be smaller waves of redundancies among the remaining 150 staff through the autumn as production was wound down.

An Employment Resource Centre has been set up on the site to give information, advice and training opportunities to employees. It is run by the training and education agency Future Prospects, who played a similar role on the York Carriageworks site after ABB announced its closure in 1996.

"Through the Resource Centre, one-to-one counselling with every employee has already been taking place, with individual action plans drawn up," said Mr Jones.

Mr Jones added: "Future Prospects has already been involved with both unions and management and, together with the Employment Service, has drawn on considerable past experience in devising a set of initiatives which will help those being made redundant find alternative employment as quickly as possible."

Mr Smith said the company had also set up a room with seven or eight PCs where people could learn basic computing skills.

He praised employee representatives for working constructively with the company over the closure arrangements. "The atmosphere is as good as you could expect under the circumstances."