UNION leaders and an MP have spoken of their disappointment after it was confirmed that another 40 posts are set to be lost at an East Lancashire aerospace plant.

Bosses at Rolls-Royce have announced that the positions will be lost at their Bankfield and Ghyll Brow sites in Barnoldswick, after initial indications that the West Craven locations may escape group-wide cuts.

Management have indicated that 24 positions in the compressor components section and 16 in the structures and transmissions department will be affected.

The losses are part of a 2,600 redundancy programme announced last month and should come into effect by the middle of 2015. It is understood that so far 120 of the 146 previous losses at Barnoldswick have come into effect.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson, vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Aerospace Group, said: “It is very disappointing that there are going to be another 40 jobs lost. This seems to be very short-sighted - when I met with Rolls-Royce on Tuesday I made the point that their site in Singapore, which also produces fan blades, has had significant investment.

“Some of the buildings at Barnoldswick are 100 years old. It is being said that production is more expensive in West Craven, but it is due to a lack of investment.”

Jon Brough, of the Unite union, said: “This will have another damaging impact on the shopfloor workers at Barnoldswick. It is going to be very difficult to work through this.

“The disappointing factor is that we do not see the workload decreasing. The anticipated growth with the XWB project in 2017 outstrips the capacity of Barnoldswick and Singapore, in terms of delivery.”