Around 100 workers recently staged a demonstration in an attempt to save England?s last remaining commercial shipyard. The future of the 148-year old Appledore Shipbuilders? facility in North Devon hangs in the balance as the yard?s owners failed to secure a £40m order from Sea Structures to build a ship for an offshore windfarm in the Bristol Channel which would have given the workforce long-term security. In the event, the ship owner placed the order with a German yard after the UK government refused to waive its requirement for an indemnity guarantee and reduce the equity payment from 20% to 10%. The DTI insisted they had done all they could do under EU rules.
Founded in 1855, the yard employs more than 500 people and hundreds of subcontractors and was put into the hands of the receivers earlier this week. Behind the scene talks are going on with three groups of potential buyers and GMB union officials appear to be confident that the yard will be sold as a going concern and that current levels of employment and skills will be maintained. Workers began a demonstration at the yard last Sunday following a meeting with the chairman in protest at the impending redundancies. The last ship was completed at Appledore nearly a month ago and there were unconfirmed reports that the yard was negotiating for a contract to build a replacement for the 1977 built Scillonian III ferry.
