FIVE-HUNDRED people have found work at the former Cammel Liard shipyard,

There are currently six refit contracts underway at the Birkenhead yard; and the good news is that more contracts are expected in the coming months.

Andy Mort, finance director of A&P Birkenhead, told the Globe: "We've got sufficient work to last until March."

Birkenehad MP Frank Field visited the yard to see progree for himself: "This is fantastic news. The work is returning, there is somewhere between 350-500 people working on site at the moment, and there is an order book being kept. In terms of shiprepair returning to Birkenhead, this is just the beginning."

Southampton-based shiprepairer A&P bought the Cammell Laird yard in August 2001, after a £51 million deal collapsed, leading to the closure of the Cammell Laird site.

Laird's troubles began in November, 2000, when the company won a £51 million refit contract for Italian cruise Costa Crociere.

Laird was due to fit the midsection into Crociere's ship Costa Classica. But the Costa Classica was called back to Italy as it made its way to Laird's Birkenhead yard.

Negotiations between Laird and Costa Crociere to end the £51 million dispute failed.

And as New Year, 2001, started Laird's managing director resigned; by April that year trading on the company's shares was suspended as they plummeted from £1.19p to six pence.

Cammell Laird went into receivership in April 2001 and by the time work had finished at the yard in July 2001, more than 1300 Laird employees had lost their jobs. Many of these went on to find work in the South of England and Europe.

Cammell Laird's yards in Birkenhead, Tyneside and Teesside were sold to Southampton-based shiprepairer A&P Group in August and, by the time of sale, 1,300 staff had lost their jobs as work dried up.