CHORLEY'S GPT plant could be under serious threat following Marconi's announcement of a sharp fall in its sales.

The 300-plus workforce at the Carr Lane payphones factory is holding its breath as bosses at the world telecommunications giant prepare to wield the axe.

The company has already proposed the closure of its plant in Poole, Dorset, with the loss of 570 jobs.

Marconi said a total of 1,500 jobs are to go in the UK.

And it is understood its major sites will be safe, leaving workers at factories such as Chorley anxiously awaiting their fate.

A spokesman for Marconi told the Citizen this week: "All our sites are under strategic review, the formal consultation process is under way.

"We are still looking at where and how job cuts will be made. It is important that unions are informed."

She said it was also important that the firm concentrated its activities on its major sites in the UK -- Liverpool, Coventry, Cambridge and Nottingham.

"Where jobs are going to go, we just can't say at the moment," she said. Marconi employs 20,000 workers in the UK. Only months ago the company revealed plans to axe 3,000 staff, 1,500 in the UK.

It blamed a sales cut of 15 per cent in the current financial year on firms delaying purchases due to the global economic slowdown.

The Chorley plant, which manufactures payphones and multi-media terminals exports throughout the world. It is set to announce new orders for Saudi Arabia and Poland.

Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle said: "I have been in contact with a main union on site and have also been in touch at main board level in London.

"Obviously I'm keeping in close contact with the decision makers in London. A decision is going to be made sooner rather than later.

"At the end of the day I'm sure that the loyal workforce, major investment on site and further success with contracts should be taken into account.