HOPE is on the horizon for redundant Cammell Laird workers on Teesside after the yard's former owner appeared as a potential buyer.

Eric Welsh sold out of the Teesport yard in 1998 when Cammell Laird took over the ship repair yard. But in April, the 110 workers at the yard were laid off when the company went into receivership. The yard has subsequently been mothballed.

Since then, unions have been campaigning for the company to be sold as a going concern in its entirity.

But yesterday, it was revealed Mr Welsh has put in an offer to the receivers, PricewaterhouseCooper, to buy back the yard and reinstate the redundant workers. It is understood that he is not interested in purchasing Cammell Laird's yards at Tyneside and Birkenhead.

Jimmy Skivington, regional organiser for the GMB union, said: "The receiver said the bid that had come in doesn't meet his expectations, but it is not a million miles away from it. He has been told to have a look at it again, and we are all hoping to find a bit of common ground when we go back to meet in Birkenhead next week."

The company is planning to make a further 20 redundancies across the three yards on Friday, but Mr Skivington said the receivers have put in a bid for maintenance work on the Cleveland County, owned by the Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority, and further Ministry of Defence works.

The receivers indicated that there were few offers for the company, but other companies thought to be interested include Alchemy, the venture capital group that tried to buy Rover, and UK shipbuilding group A&P Holdings, which has operations on the Tyne.