MORE than half the workforce at the North-East's largest waste management firm have transferred to a rival company, as it considers closing a recently re-opened facility it spent two years restoring to working order.

Around 120 of the 230 staff employed by the Durham City based Premier Waste Management were transferred to the HW Martin Group yesterday, after it bought its commercial waste collections business, main operating centres and a recycling facility in Washington, Wearside.

Premier, headquartered at Aykley Heads, also said it had placed its remaining staff under consultation, with possible redundancies to follow.

It addition the firm is considering closing its Premier Advanced Recycling Centre (Parc) aerobic digester facility in Thornley, County Durham, because it is potentially no longer commercially viable to operate.

It was only last August the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) gave its approval for work to re-start at Parc following its closure in 2008.

The centre, which started operations in 2007, was shut after a problem arose with its temperature monitoring system, meaning it could not guarantee that materials had been treated properly.

Yesterday Premier's chief executive Steve Scott said:"In line with many other businesses and organisations in the region we are undergoing a restructuring of our business which includes the sale of the commercial collections part of our company as well as our Monument Park recycling facility. These have been sold as a going concern.

"We are also looking at a restructuring across the rest of the company, including the possible closure of our aerobic digester plant which we have identified as being potentially no longer commercially viable to operate.

"A refocus on the business will allow us to concentrate on more productive parts of our business.

"All efforts will be made to keep the number of redundancies involved to a minimum.

"We are currently undergoing a consultation process with our employees and cannot comment further at this time."

Derbyshire based HW Martin, which will run its new operations as Premier Waste Recycling Ltd, already carries out residential refuse collections and household waste recycling in Gateshead and South Tyneside.

It said the acquisition would give it a greater foothold in the commercial waste sector. In a statement the firm said: "The acquisition of its commercial collection and recycling division by the Martin Group of Companies brings with it the investment required to realise the company's expansion potential."