Scores of workers fear for their jobs after six companies were ordered to leave city industrial sites.

Brighton and Hove City Council, as landlord, says they must move out by the end of July to make way for a recycling centre.

The businesses, which include building, scaffolding, meat and transport firms, lease industrial units on two sites - Hollingdean refuse depot in Upper Hollingdean Road, Brighton, and nearby Ash Court.

The council's waste disposal contractor, Onyx Aurora, plans to develop the combined site by 2006, mainly for recycling.

Although no planning application has been made, the companies have been served notice.

They employ more than 100 people.

John Williams, a director of J Davies Builders, said he might have to shed staff.

The company, which employs 43 workers, has been at the depot for eight years and in Brighton and Hove for more than 35.

Mr Williams said: "If we do not find the right accommodation and site to move to there are going to be casualties."

He said there was a desperate shortage of land for industrial development and many of the threatened companies required office space and a yard for equipment.

Mr Williams said: "There does not seem to be a strategy as far as the local authority is concerned for finding and developing land for this type of business."

He is angry the council has only given six months' notice because he needs to find a site which can cater for his trucks and apply for planning permission for an operator's licence.

He said: "What will possibly happen is we will relocate out of Brighton and that will be a big loss."

Kevin Wilson, a director of Diamond Meats, a catering butcher in Brighton and Hove for more than 32 years, has been on the site for more than three years.

He said: "We had another two years on our lease and there had been an option to apply for more but we were given six months' notice to quit from March this year.

"The council doesn't even have planning permission yet to develop this site."

Diamond Meats employs 12 people and has spent thousands of pounds improving its premises to ensure they meet food hygiene standards.

Mr Wilson said: "I want compensation.

"I've spent thousands on a solicitor sorting out somewhere else to move to. It's a pain in the butt."

Some employees from the companies have written to the council and Brighton Kemptown Labour MP Des Turner in protest.

A spokesman for the city council said: "We urgently need more space at Holling-dean depot for the expansion of the city's recycling service.

"Unless we gain more space the service won't be able to operate properly.

"The relocation of the six tenant businesses is unfortunate but necessary if the city is to have more recycling.

"We have been in discussions with the businesses since August last year.

"In January we gave them six months' notice, meaning they have to vacate by the end of July.

"We are making every effort possible to help these tenants relocate to either other council-owned properties or private sector premises."

Thursday March 04, 2004