A BUILDING firm involved in tendering work for large customers including Bolton at Home has gone into administration, creating jobs uncertainty for more than 70 workers.

Blakeley Tonge and Partner, based in Lever Bridge Mills, Darcy Lever, warned three years ago that economic conditions and competition from rival tendering firms were making its work harder.

Now the firm’s affairs are being handled by administrators from accountancy firm RSM Tenon, in Clive Street, Bolton.

Talks were being held on Tuesday at the Darcy Lever site.

Office manager John Scoble, said: “It is with great regret that Blakeley Tonge and Partner, a local construction company, entered administration on Friday, February 8.

“The company was established in 1976, and had traded in Bolton from two locations. These were Farnworth up until 2000, and then Darcy Lever until its demise.”

He added: “The 71 employees were informed on Friday that RSM Tenon had been appointed administrator.

More than 65 of the employees live in Bolton.”

No further details were available yesterday but Mr Scoble said RSM Tenon might make future statements as the situation develops.

As well as the company’s own employees, The Bolton News understands that a number of sub-contractors could lose money if the firm’s future is not secured.

Bosses said the company has a strong history of training young apprentices.

The firm was established by Frank Scoble in 1976, and has taken on more than 100 trainees since the 1980s.

Despite the credit crunch and flattening building sector of the last few years, the firm was still taking pride in its work and recruiting new trainees up until the late 2000s.

In 2009, 12 trainees appeared in The Bolton News with the former mayor, Cllr Norman Critchley, after completing a scheme of improvements to homes around Briercliffe Road in Deane.

Competition for work, even for the smaller jobs, was tough but the firm was holding its own, said directors.

However, they said one of the main problems was bigger companies trying to take their work. Tendering was a difficult process because labour and material prices were falling and everyone was fighting for the same work, they said in 2009.