Real fears overmega-merger

More and more companies are

merging in the new millennium to form multi-billion pound, worldwide

organisations.

First we had Time Warner and AOL coming together in a £100 billion deal. Now Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham are proposing an even bigger £114 billion merger to form the world's largest drugs company.

These mergers can provide much-needed investment, especially in this case for new drugs research, and can produce economies of scale.

But the downside can be job losses, which is why 4,000 SmithKline Beecham workers in Worthing and Crawley are worried.

This company is one of the biggest in Sussex and any redundancies would be bad news, especially in Worthing which has few other large firms and higher unemployment than Crawley.

If jobs are lost the new multi-billion pound conglomerate must ensure that the terms and conditions are generous.

Storm warning

The storms which devastated France late last year were worse than the 1987 hurricane in South East England with dozens of people dead,

250 million trees destroyed and an oil slick hitting beaches of Brittany.

Weeks later, Sussex is feeling the effects of the storms with oil, probably from the ship affecting Brittany, drifting ashore in several resorts.

Luckily it hasn't caused more than minor inconvenience here. But it goes to show what could happen if there was a similar shipping disaster in the Channel.

Location to be

Lewes may be pretty, but it doesn't immediately spring to mind when top British film locations are considered.

All this will change if ambitious plans by the district council are successful in wooing top stars and directors to this part of Sussex.

Already Seaford Head has featured in EastEnders and a James Bond movie, while the beach at Cuckmere Haven was used for the opening scene in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, Prince Of Thieves.

A portfolio of possible locations will soon be sent to managers of major film companies in the hope they will alight at Lewes.

And we'll know Lewes has made it in the film world if its name appears in giant letters on the cliffs at the back of town.

Watch out Hollywood - your days could be numbered as British upstarts play fast and Lewes with you.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.