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Displaying items by tag: Appledore to Close

#Ports&Shipping- The UK shipyard (that built LÉ George Bernard Shaw) is to shut despite its owner being offered a £60m contract by the MoD.

Staff at Appledore Shipyard in Devon reports BBC News have been told by owner Babcock that it will close by the end of March 2019.

The company recently lost a contract with the Armed Forces of Malta, causing financial difficulties.

Babcock said all 199 workers will be offered a move to Devonport Dockyard, also owned by the firm, 45 miles (72km) away.

'We want answers'

The GMB union said it wanted answers from the government and from Babcock about the £60m package which would have offered extra work at Devonport.

Babcock had said the extra work would not be enough to secure Appledore's future, see related report. 

Some Appledore staff had been temporarily redeployed to Devonport since the news of the lost contract came through.

For more on "Save Appledore Shipyard" petition and a brief history of the facility dating to 1855, click here.

 

Published in Ports & Shipping

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago