Redundancies are on the cards after a Maldon car dealership announced it is to close.

Workers at Dovercourt Ford have been given less than two weeks' notice that the business is being axed.

The sales showroom shut last night (Monday) - just hours after employees found out the bad news - and the service centre on the corner of Spital Road and the High Street will close on October 13.

The 20 employees at the site will be made redundant if they do not want to move to another Ford dealership.

And some have already been told they have no chance of being relocated.

The 2,500 customers on its books will be forced to go elsewhere to get their cars serviced - although they are being given "loyalty vouchers" for a Ford garage in another town.

Dovercourt Ford bought out Doe Motors in 1998, but group managing director Chris Hayden admitted Maldon never featured as a major part of its plans.

He said skilled workers from the Maldon branch may be found work elsewhere in the group, but clerical staff were likely to find themselves on the dole.

"There will be redundancies, but we don't yet know how many. There is a consultation process going on at the moment."

Mr Hayden said the closure had nothing to do with the current business climate, with car sales dropping off around the country. He said Ford was restructuring and pouring its money into key centres.

"The sales centres at South Woodham Ferrers and Witham are being enhanced and there will be big changes there in the next year."

The shock news of the closure comes just weeks after Houldings of Heybridge announced it had lost its Rover franchise and was being forced to shut its sales and service centre.

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