ALMOST 800 workers were facing redundancy last night after confirmation of the closure of Scotland's largest tyre factory, the Continental plant at Newbridge, near Edinburgh.

Furious unions accused the German-based multinational of betraying a workforce which had made herculean sacrifices to ensure the factory's survival, despite its being under threat for months. They said production would be taken over by a new plant in Romania.

However, the company blamed the strong pound, a shrinking market, and losses of #30m over the last five years.

Efforts were immediately launched to obtain a stay of execution, pending a lobby for Government assistance to attract a buyer, and setting up a taskforce to find alternative jobs before the factory's closure in mid-November.

Operations director Stewart Segrott said: ''The decision is not 100% irrevocable at this stage. I have to hope that we can still recover something from this situation. It is a very slim hope and extremely unlikely, but I must maintain the belief that something will come up to change the decision until the last person walks out of the factory gate.''

The factory makes five million low and medium performance tyres a year, mostly for Germany, but demand had dropped 45% over the last three years as customers moved to high performance tyres.

Newbridge had diversified into van tyre production. ''But we have now gone beyond the point where we can introduce anything else as a substitute,'' Mr Segrott said.

He said the high pound and failure to join the euro had made its tyres 15% more expensive and also influenced its Hanover HQ against further investment, despite pleas by Newbridge.

''I am bitterly disappointed that the actions taken by management and the staff at this site have so far met with failure,'' Mr Segrott said.

He said generous packages would be offered at four or five times the State minimum. A total of 774 jobs are directly affected and a further 100 contractor posts.

Unions said the workforce had responded to a succession of demands for new shift patterns, longer hours for less pay, and sacrificing holidays to keep the plant going. ''Every challenge they have put to us we have risen to, and all we get in return is this. We have been deceived and betrayed,'' said GMB branch secretary John McAllister.

''We are just devastated. The average age here is 45 and there are a lot of people here who will never work again.''

Mr Eddie Duffy, regional officer for the AEEU, said he believed the Hanover board had deliberately raised demands, hoping they would be rejected, to force closure. ''It is a disgrace the way the Germans have treated the workforce here,'' he added.

The job losses are of a scale matched in recent years only by the Viasystems closures in the Borders, which put 2000 people out of work.

Pressure was mounting last night on the Scottish Executive to intervene. Enterprise Minister Henry McLeish is in the USA, but has been kept informed.

Scottish National Party MSP Fiona Hyslop said: ''This area already has one of the highest rates of unemployment in Scotland and it is absolutely critical that we fight to gain the best deal possible for the workforce.''

Liberal Democrat MSP Margaret Smith said: ''This is a tragedy for the Newbridge community and a major blow to the Lothian economy. Even at this stage we must pursue every avenue open to us.''

Scottish Tories' deputy leader Annabel Goldie said: ''We very much hope that Henry McLeish works as hard and is as successful for the workforce of Continental as Lord Macdonald reportedly was for the workforce of Kvaerner.''

The local enterprise company, Leel, said it would be helping to set up a taskforce along the lines of that set up in Haddington after the Mitsubishi closure, where only 18 of the original 505 employees were now still seeking work.