A LACK of demand for new cars across Europe has forced Ellesmere Port’s Vauxhall plant to shut down for a week.

The car manufacturer’s parent company General Motors made the announcement earlier this week, stating that its two UK factories, the other based in Luton, would suspend production for a week due to poor car sales across recession-hit Europe.

A build-up of unsold stock has instigated a ‘down week’ for September 24, although staff will be paid as usual.

This will be in place of sporadic ‘down days’ over the winter.

The news comes less than four months after the Ellesmere Port site was chosen to build the next generation Astra, following a reported £125m investment from General Motors.

But John Fetherston from trade union Unite said he was ‘unsurprised’ by the news and that the Ellesmere Port plant was not at risk in any way.

“This is just a one-week closure that will not affect things, it just has to happen because of dropped sales across Europe,” he explained.

“This is something that all plants in Europe are doing because of how the market is right now, we just have to deal with things on a week-to-week basis.”

He added: “The staff are aware of the crisis and the economic downturn so it has not come as a shock to them, obviously they’d sooner be working but this is just how it is.

“We’ve got a plan to build the new Astra in 2015 and that’s exactly what we’re going to do – these plans will not affect that.”

Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Andrew Miller said he was also not surprised at the news.

“The closure comes as no surprise as the Opel factory in Russelsheim, Germany, is to close for 20 days,” he said.

“This is partly a result of European Governments, including the UK, failing to follow the recovery path adopted in the US that got GM and Ford out of potential bankruptcy.

“We need to press the Government hard on stimulating a faster recovery.”

A statement from Vauxhall’s press office said: “The closure is to avoid building up stock by balancing inventory with customer orders.

“Hours lost will be paid as normal and 'banked' for payback in the future according to volume requirements and assembly of the next generation Astra at Ellesmere Port is scheduled to start production in 2015.”