It has been a turbulent time for Ellesmere Port car workers, but the future may yet be bright, reports Alistair Houghton

THERE may still be a shadow hanging over Ellesmere Port, but in the Cheshire sunshine yesterday the future of the town’s Vauxhall plant began to look much brighter.

Magna’s drawn-out takeover of General Motors Europe has left the 2,000-plus staff at the site fearing for their futures, as reports swirl around that thousands of UK jobs could be axed when Canadian firm Magna takes over. But yesterday, as they spoke to journalists at the high-profile launch of the new Vauxhall Astra, company managers said the plant would have a great future under new ownership.

Magna is the preferred bidder to take over GM Europe and is now in negotiations with trade unions and the governments of countries where plants are located.

The company needs to make around £243m cuts in Europe – around £24m of which will need to be made in the UK. Up to 10,500 jobs could be axed from the 54,000-strong European workforce and unions fear hundreds of jobs could be under threat at Ellesmere Port.

There’s no doubt everyone at Vauxhall, in Ellesmere Port, is worried about the future. But yesterday, the focus was all on the new Astra.

Ellesmere Port had to bid to win the right to build the Astra against competition from GM’s other European plants.

It won, Vauxhall’s human resources director Phil Millward said, because it could prove it was an efficient and cost-effective plant. Five years ago, at his own admission, Ellesmere Port was a middling GM Europe plant – today, in every measure of cost and efficiency that GM makes, Ellesmere Port ranks at number one or two in Europe.

That success is why Vauxhall managers are convinced that Ellesmere Port does have a long-term future, whatever short-term hit it may take when the Magna deal is signed.

And, crucially, it means Ellesmere Port could be in pole position to bid for any future new Vauxhall or Opel models – including the Ampera electric car.