Up to a hundred nightshift workers are believed to have been laid off at failing Bradford mill W&J Whitehead.

Employees say they were only told the devastating news after finishing their last shift today before their annual two-week holiday.

However, Tenon Recovery, the administrative receivers brought in to sell off the Laisterdyke business, would only confirm that a statement on the situation was being prepared.

Father-of-three Mohammed Mqasim, a 46-year-old worker from Low Moor, is now looking for another job after collecting his personal belongings from the mill today.

He said: "The night shift has been completely closed down and I don't know what I'm going to do now, because I've been working in textiles for nearly 28 years.

"I have three kids and a wife so I need to keep the money coming in, but there isn't much around at the moment. This is a big shock."

Mr Mqasim, who has been with W&J Whitehead for a year, had been 'temporarily' laid off three weeks back due, he was told, to a shortfall in orders.

The topmakers and worsted spinners business, which was set up in 1858 and is Bradford's biggest remaining wool mill, employs a 600-strong workforce.

Earlier this week Bradford North MP Terry Rooney and the Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) met with the receivers to try to come up with a deal to safeguard the jobs.

But Mr Rooney described the meeting as disappointing, after being told there was 'no chance' of the company continuing in its present form.

T&G regional industrial organiser Tony Barrow was critical of the company for keeping the workforce in the dark and not holding talks about its trading problems until it was too late. He said he had been assured, however, that holiday pay had been paid to all employees.

l A £1 million bid to breathe new life into a derelict site is set to bring scores of new jobs to Shipley.

And the plans to develop the vacant site, which once housed a filling station, have been welcomed by councillors who say the scheme would be a major boost to the local economy.

Leeds-based property investment company Maxett Ltd has applied to Bradford Council for permission to build a two-storey office block on land at Otley Road's junction with View Croft Road.

The company says it is in negotiations with two large companies, who have expressed an interest in leasing the building, and believe the offices would create some 80 new jobs.