TYTHERINGTON Quarry looks set to close down at the end of the year.

Due to the economic downturn, owner Hanson Aggregates UK has announced a major restructuring of all its plants nationwide.

Following a review of the firm’s assets, the asphalt factory in Tytherington, which employs five workers, has been earmarked for closure along with around 15 others.

Hanson UK chief executive Patrick O’Shea said up to 250 jobs could be axed across the country.

He said: "We will be doing all we can to mitigate job losses by eliminating vacancies and trying to find alternative posts for affected staff. The relevant trade unions and the UK employee forum have been notified, and I expect most of the restructuring to be completed by the end of the year."

As part of the overhaul, Tytherington’s quarry is set to be "mothballed" while the asphalt and the concrete plants are due to shut for good.

The construction firm, part of Germany’s HeidelbergCement Group, is currently in talks with staff in the village about the possibility of transferring some of them to nearby Hanson factories.

"We are in the process of consulting with our employees," a Hanson UK spokesman told the Gazette. "The consultation process is designed to see what people want to do and then do our best to accommodate them."

He added that the economic climate had forced the firm to make "tough decisions".

He said: "The quarry has been effectively mothballed for the past two years. We have not been working the quarry. We are a demand-driven business. We are suffering and have been for a number of years.

"We’ve got across the country a number of plants all operating on half power.

"We have had to make some tough decisions. We expected a tail-off in demand this year of four per cent but we saw drops of ten, 15 per cent."

Hanson UK confirmed that staff at its other South Gloucestershire plant in Chipping Sodbury would not be affected by the restructuring.

The company employs around 4,000 people at nearly 300 sites.