The managing director of a travel firm with an Oswestry-based store has moved to reassure people that there are no plans for redundancies in the region.

Don Bircham, of Hays Travel North West, has made the statement after redundancies were announced in other parts of the Hays Travel business.

The Sunderland-based company bought Thomas Cook shops last year when the company went into liquidation.

Hays Travel North West, which has a shop in Cross Street, will not be impacted by the redundancies according to Mr Bircham, who said although there have been difficulties for the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for holidays is now good.

He said: “We have no plans in our business to make anybody redundant.

“It’s obviously a challenging period but we are seeing good demand for holidays, particularly in Greece, Turkey, Italy and Malta and we are hopeful that the UK Government will soon re-establish the air bridges with the Canaries and the Balearics.”

Hays Travel confirmed 878 employees will be made redundant due to coronavirus restrictions.

Owners John and Irene Hays said Spanish travel restrictions meant hundreds of thousands of holidays were cancelled.

Owner John Hays said they had “made every possible effort” to protect the jobs of all the firm’s staff.

He said: “We are devastated that after all of our efforts and the huge investment we’ve made, we now face losing some of our valued employees, through no fault of their own.

The firm said experienced sales staff, apprentices and head office staff were not affected.