Fifty workers made redundant as building firm goes into liquidation
UP TO 50 jobs are thought to have been lost after one of the South West's oldest building firms ceased trading.
Buckfastleigh's Blight and Scoble Ltd is in the process of being placed into liquidation after 'difficult trading conditions' forced it to fold.
All employees were made redundant last week. It is unclear at this stage how much money is owed to creditors.
The Exeter office of accountants and insolvency specialists Bishop Fleming has been appointed to oversee the firm's affairs.
A brief statement issued by Bishop Fleming said: "Due to difficult trading conditions the company ceased to trade on August 26, 2010, and all employees were made redundant at that time.
"Jerry O'Sullivan and Sam Talby, of Bishop Fleming, are advising the directors regarding the company's financial position and assisting with the formalities to place the company into liquidation.
"Meetings of the company's members and creditors are to be held on Wednesday, September 8, at the Devon Hotel, Exeter, when the company will be placed into liquidation and a liquidator appointed."
According to its own website, Blight and Scoble was formed in 1895 and incorporated in 1956 and has been a family-run business for more than 100 years.
The firm has worked on notable developments in South Devon including a painstaking restoration of historic Sandford Orleigh, in Newton Abbot, in the early 1990s and The Robins respite centre at Dartington, which opened in 1999.
This year Blight and Scoble has been working on a major £1.2 million contract for Devon & Cornwall Police's new major crime investigation unit in Linhay Business Park, Ashburton.
A police spokesman said: "Devon & Cornwall Police can confirm we have received notification that Blight and Scoble is in the process of being placed in liquidation.
"This will not have an impact on the police operationally, but it may result in a delay on the completion of the new premises."
According to its website, Blight and Scoble has been owned by the Palk family since the early 1980s and employs 50 people across Devon.
One creditor, who did not wish to be named, said: "We were told as soon as it happened.
"We have been left out of pocket by quite a bit.
"I also think it's a shame it's happened because it's a local firm."
4 Comments
by Brian, Ivybridge
Monday, September 06 2010, 8:35PM
“Perhaps Ramon would care to share with us his credible alternatives for the economy to be turned around.
Perhaps he also has a magic wand that could prevent us now paying the price for the excess (both private and public sector) of the last few years”
by J Walker (Builder's) Bristol, Bristol
Monday, September 06 2010, 5:48PM
“These 50 lost jobs can be added to the 37 lost from my company which I wound up this week, as a direct result of the cuts being made in School,and Hospital refurbishment, something we will see more,and more of, eveyone calls for cuts in the Public Sector,forgetting that hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Private sector will also be lost.”
by Dan, @work
Monday, September 06 2010, 10:40AM
“I must need my eyes tested, i read that headline as FILTHY workers. after that the story was kinda disappointing.”
by Ramon, Plymouth City Center
Monday, September 06 2010, 10:36AM
“Sad news but this is just the beginning of this sort of thing. Over the next 6 months the government cuts will force many more closures and job losses.
Seem to remember similar things happening last time the Tories were in under Thatcher.”