JOBSEEKERS have received glad tidings for the festive season - but the New Year will bring uncertainty for one group of workers.

Thirty jobs are to be created at a recycling project in Kidderminster while more than 100 jobs are under threat in Stourport.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) such as cookers and washing machines will be refurbished or dismantled into usable parts at a new centre thanks to a £729,660 Government grant.

As well as bringing jobs and training for skilled workers, the scheme could see a two per cent increase in county recycling. Oldington and Foley Park Community Network Director Ellen Coe gets to work on a washing machine.

It will also enable the county to comply with a new European Directive on WEEE due to come into force in 2004.

Possible locations are now being looked at for the centre, which will be run by the county council and the Oldington and Foley Park Community Network from June.

Equipment will be processed at the centre and then sold on or given to people in "financial need".

The network is a charity supporting residents of the area and also runs the Network Furniture Centre, which performs a similar service, upholstering and restoring furniture before redistributing it.

Network director Ellen Coe said: "This is good news for our organisation. We will be providing a much-needed service to the people of Worcestershire as well as jobs and training for some 30 people."

However, Tube Plastics, based in Stourport's Cheapside, has hit out at district council proposals not to zone its uneconomic site for housing - which it said will endanger the company's future.

The Local Plan states the site will only be released for housing before 2011 if there is a shortfall in provision.

But Tube Plastics, which employs 104 people, submitted detailed objections to the council, which is currently conducting a review of the plan.

Planning consultant John Jowitt warned of "catastrophic" consequences - for the town and the firm - if one of Stourport's biggest employers was not allowed to sell its site for homes.

Selling it for industrial use would not raise as much money and could mean the company would not be able to afford a Wyre Forest relocation.

He said: "It wants to stay in the area - it has a strong local workforce and it wants to move locally to keep that workforce.

"If the company could move tomorrow it would. The site is already causing us problems. Within 12 to 18 months it must make a decision. It could be catastrophic for the town."

The toy firm claimed the two-hectare site - big enough for 100 homes - would act as a catalyst for the town's regeneration.

And it argued the district council's estimate of 3,000 new houses required between 1996 and 2011 is an "unrealistically low" figure that could damage the economy.

The district council admitted the plan might be "unsettling" for the company but rejected the objections.

It stressed the Cheapside site was likely to be redeveloped for housing after 2011 but added it wanted to ration new developments, partly to limit the number of newcomers from the West Midlands conurbation settling in Wyre Forest.

Planners defended their estimate of 3,000 homes and argued the redeveloped Carpets of Worth site would be a "sound basis" for the canal basin's regeneration.

Planning inspector Stephen Pratt will consider the arguments and should report his recommendations in May.