Thousands of anxious Westland workers attended a mass-meeting to hear about a restructuring package as this paper went to press.

Rumours and speculations were rife as soon as the meeting was announced on Wednesday.

The company's press office was tight-lipped and even failed to return phone calls, but word on the street was that in excess of 500, probably as many as 800, jobs would go, spread over the helicopters, transmissions and industrial products divisions.

An informed source told The Clarion Advertiser that it was his understanding that about 600 jobs would be lost at Yeovil, with the remaining 200 or so being lost at Weston-super-Mare.

The new millennium has been a bit of a rollercoaster for Westland and its staff. On February 14th, 2000, champagne was 'flowing' as the 5,200 square feet and hi-tech Apache production facility was officially opened - but less than a week later the aerospace division made 97 employees redundant.

It was back to celebrations in March that year as national media descended on Yeovil for the handing over of the first WAH-64 Apache to the British Army.

But orders dried up and there has been an underlying feeling on the shop floor that everything wasn't right.

An upswing in orders, from among others Denmark, late last year improved the situation but also coincided with a programme of voluntary redundancies - a sure sign that something isn't right.

*MP David Laws was set to hold a press conference at mid-day yesterday (Thursday) to discuss the situation.