Industry News
TVR owners stage London rally
27th November 2006
TVR sports car owners drove through London yesterday to try to set a new world record for the largest parade of a single car make, and help save Blackpool production. A petition was to be handed into 10 Downing Street calling on the British government to help save TVR’s Blackpool assembly operations, which the company’s owner Nikolai Smolensky plans to outsource to a continental European contract assembler from next year. TVR halted production two weeks ago. Output at the factory was stopped this month, having fallen from around 15 cars a week to between six and 10. 158 workers have already been laid off.
The rally followed another owner-organised event in Blackpool, convened through the internet forum www.pistonheads.com.
A Transport and General Workers Union official from the Blackpool factory said: “The London rally, and the attempt to urge the Government and other relevant bodies to use all their power to keep TVR in Britain, where it belongs, is a tremendous gesture of support by the car owners for the workforce in Blackpool, the true home of TVR.”
Dave Chant, the organiser of the rally, said: “TVR is the last major manufacturer of true, race-bred, sports cars left in Britain. The skills and craftsmanship of the people who build these machines will be lost for ever if production is moved abroad. I applaud the entire workforce for their passion and dedication to the marque.”
(various sources, 27 November)
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