Large scale redundancies have been announced at what was once destined to become one of Gloucestershire's biggest ever businesses.

Last week we reported how uncertainty hung over the Gloucester-headquartered Horizon after its owners, Japanese firm Hitachi pulled the plug on the Brockworth business.

It was odds on that with its withdrawal from involvement in building the UK's next generation of nuclear power stations, at Wylfa Newydd in north Wales and in South Gloucestershire, jobs would go.

But in a sector where high-brinkmanship can be the order of the day it may have felt to some this could always go one of two ways. But the worst news for staff has come to pass.

A spokesman for Horizon said: "Hitachi haven't withdrawn entirely but we have suspended our projects at Wylfa and Oldbury and very unfortunately this triggers a large-scale redundancy programme.

"We begin a formal consultation process with our 380 staff and the current expectation is there will only be a small number of people left at Horizon at the end of the process.

"As with our staff, we are now in conversations with our supply chain with a view to bringing their work to an orderly end."

Duncan Hawthorne, CEO of Horizon Nuclear Power, made the initial announcement of Hitachi's withdrawal last week (January 17).

Experts and the firm itself predicted the company was destined to enter the FTSE 100 and be at the forefront of the UK's energy police for years to come.

Read more: 330 jobs at risk as major development project shelved