The closure of Young’s Seafood’s Pinneys factory in Annan is well underway with no hope in sight of a buyer, and with full shutdown now expected in October, reports The National.

The paper revealed with a vital production now line having closed, almost half of the expected 450 redundancies will have taken place by the end of this week with the rest to follow next month and complete closure is now expected by early October.

The National also revealed that strenuous efforts are being made by the workers, their representatives, trade union Unite, politicians and the Scottish government’s PACE team to force Young’s to part with the plant.

The news comes three days after local MP and Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell and his son, Dumfriesshire MSP Oliver Mundell, issued a joint statement calling for the Scottish government to buy the plant to keep alive the hopes of new jobs for the town where Pinneys, owned by Young’s Seafood of Grimsby, was the largest employer.