A FACTORY that was once Westhoughton's biggest employer has closed.

Metal Box, which produced metal cans and can components for the food and drink industry, once provided the town with 1,500 jobs and was the hub of the local manufacturing industry.

The busy production lines, which once turned out 15 million cans per week, ground to a halt in December after 48 years, and now just five people are working to decommission the site.

Bulldozers are poised to move on to the sprawling Chew Moor factory site, to make way for around 400 homes with planning permission expected to be given to developers Barratt Homes early this year.

Today a former worker told of his sadness at the end of an era. Kevin McMannon, who worked at the site for 26 years said he still believed that jobs could have been saved and blamed the takeover by American parent firm Crown, Cork and Seal in 1989 for the demise.

He said: "Some of their ideas and working practices were not what we were used to.

"Obviously there was also competition from the Eastern market which could offer cheaper cans and components."

The darkest day in the factory's history came in May 2002 when two workmen were killed by a giant fireball inside a redundant chimney. Two factory bosses were later charged with manslaughter and are due to stand trial later this year.