Derby Telegraph editor lobbies to save thousands of local jobs

A regional newspaper editor will travel to Berlin tomorrow to personally lobby the president of train manufacturing company Bombardier in a bid to secure the future of 3,000 jobs at its Derby plant.

Bombardier lost a vital government deal worth £1.4 billion to build carriages for the Thameslink service in London to German company Siemens – a decision Derby Telegraph editor Steve Hall described as an ‘outrage”.

Hall is now part of five-strong delegation, including the Derby plant’s chief executive and Derby’s council leader, that will hand deliver a letter to Bombardier’s top bosses tomorrow.

Losing the deal to Siemens means Bombardier was left with a contract gap in 2012, and shortly after the announcement was made the firm undertook a review of its entire UK operation which puts 3,000 jobs at the plant under threat.

The Government said the Siemens deal was better value for money but later admitted it had not considered the economic impact of widespread job losses in the region.