A GROUP of four women claim they were made redundant from a Horwich business just months after an electrical contractor bought the company promising to secure all the jobs.

The women said they were taken into a room together and told to leave that day without any prior warning from Ash Northern Limited in Longworth Road.

Preston-based company J. Smith and Sons Limited had bought out the Horwich business last August with a pledge to maintain all 40 staff, but has now made the only four women who were employed there redundant.

The three full-time workers Tracy Barker, Lynne Mackey, Tracey Jolley and part-time employee Julie Smith, also claim they were told their jobs would now be carried out at the Preston headquarters as it was no longer cost effective to employ them at Horwich.

The six-year-old Horwich business, which is contracted by large construction companies to install heating and ventilation systems, had looked likely to run into problems without the intervention of Smith and Sons.

Tracy Barker, from Farnworth, had worked at the company for three-and-a-half years as office manager and was horrified when she was told to leave.

The 28-year-old, who has since found a job in Leigh, said: "We couldn't believe what we were being told.

"Everyone was so relieved when Smiths took over last year and promised that all the jobs were safe.

"But we were shocked and disgusted when we were told to just leave without any warning." Tracey Jolley, of Wilderswood Avenue, Horwich, was especially devastated to be made redundant as she had only been out of hospital a few days having broken her ankle in an accident at work.

The 21-year-old, who had worked there for four years as an administrator, said: "I was already fed up having broken my ankle.

"But when someone I didn't know came to my house to tell me I had lost my job I felt gutted.

"They had only just sent me to Preston to show me a new accounts system and then made me redundant.

"All the men working there felt just as gutted as us because we had worked with them for years and they felt guilty that we'd lost our jobs and they hadn't."

Ann Stewart from J. Smith and Sons Limited said: "We took over Ash Northern Limited on 31 August 2000 as a going concern.

"Unfortunately due to reasons beyond our control we had to make a commercial decision which ultimately involved making the administration team redundant."