London bombing memorial firm moves to three day week

THE Sheffield firm behind the recently unveiled 7/7 memorial has been forced to move to a three-day week because of a fall in orders.

Norton Cast Products said that some staff were being made redundant while others were working fewer hours.

Simon Alexander, the firm’s managing director, said that although new orders had come through after the unveiling of the memorial in London’s Hyde Park last week, the next two years were going to be “tough”.

“It’s been incredibly difficult, not least because we are a family business and we feel like all the workers at Norton are part of our extended family and unfortunately with the downturn in business we have had to make a number of people redundant,” he said.

“It’s a fairly familiar picture but it’s painful when it happens in your own business and furthermore we have seen further declines in business and we have had to instigate some shorter working time practices.”

The memorial features 52 stainless steel pillars representing the lives lost in the London bombings back in July 2007.