New Astra driving forward hopes of Ellesmere Port

THE Ellesmere Port-built Vauxhall Astra – the seventh generation of the car – goes on show at the Frankfurt motor show tomorrow.

The vehicle – stalwart of the affordable British car market for General Motors, usually among the top three best sellers in the UK – carries the hopes the job prospects in the Cheshire region with production expected to rise to 120,000 during the next 12 months.

Industry experts reckon output could go much higher depending on how the British public receive the new car which goes on sale after the show for £15,295.

Nealy 50% of all Astras made are likely to remain in the UK, making Ellesmere Port the largest production hub for the domestic vehicles in Britain.

The launch of the car represents a spectacular turn-around in fortune for the manufacturing plant with Tim Tozer, the Vauxhall chairman and managing director admitting Ellesmere Port had emerged from “a fight for survival” to persuade American and European bosses at GM to keep the plant open.

John Cooper, Ellesmere Port’s longest-standing employee and senior shop steward of the Unite union, it was even worse than that.

He told the Sunday Times: “The future of GM Europe was in the balance. They wanted cuts. We had previously given away a lot in negotiations to bring the last Astra to Ellesmere Port and we weren’t prepared to give any more away.”

At that point, the man on the other side of the table, Peter Thom, a former Ellesmere Port manager who is now GM Europe’s head of manufacturing, walked out to tell corporate headquarters in Russelsheim that they might as well close the British factory.

“It was then we had the dawn of realisation that if we didn’t do anything, this plant was not going to be here any longer,” Mr Cooper said. “People had not seen the enormity of the situation.

“He [Mr Thom] had got his coat on and was heading out the door when we told him to stop. It was the right decision.”