A car firm is cutting 150 jobs, half in Worthing, less than two years after moving into a site vacated by Korean car giant Daewoo.

TWR, which had close links with the Arrows Formula One team, said the posts would be axed at bases in Worthing and Oxford.

The company, run by Tom Walkinshaw, took over top-secret vehicle research facilities at Lyons Farm from Daewoo in a £4.5 million deal in 2001.

TWR, which specialises in the design, engineering and manufacture of vehicles, blamed a downturn in the car industry for the job losses, and said about 75 out of 250 posts at Worthing would go.

Communications manager Richard Hayes said: "It is really regrettable and we did everything we could with regards to cost-cutting to avoid them.

"But we are consultants to the automotive industry and the whole industry has not had the best of years by some margin.

"We have reduced the workforce across the board but haven't wiped out any particular capability at all.

"The Worthing site is hugely sophisticated, very capable and completely self-contained. It is a great asset for TWR and the industry."

Meanwhile, the Transport and General Workers' Union has criticised a Littlehampton firm for the way it handled the imminent redundancies of a substantial part of its workforce.

Maurice Regan, regional industrial organiser of the union, said around half the 140 workers at VHB Humber tomato growers in Toddington Lane were being laid off.

Mr Regan said he was deeply disappointed, stating the firm had reneged on promises to help people being made redundant find other jobs by assisting with CV and letter writing skills and interview techniques.

He said: "It is fair to say that staff are very unhappy. This could have been done a lot less painfully."