Up to two hundred Norwich workers have been made redundant from city council contractor Fountains.

Workers for Fountains were summoned to its headquarters in Whiffler Road, Mile Cross, at 12.30pm today where they were told they had been made redundant.

The environmental management company, formerly known as Connaught Environmental Services, had a �4.6m a year contract with the city council to collect waste, clean streets and to maintain parks.

But the entire workforce were told they were being laid off, with administrators BDO called in to the company and jobs advice being offered to the people who have lost their jobs.

BDO has secured a sale of the majority of the contracts and assets to OCS Group, with 1,570 Fountains Group workers moving across.

But the Norwich contract was not transferred, so 153 workers have lost their jobs. A further 293 other Fountains Group redundancies have been made in other parts of the country.

Tony Nygate, BDO business restructuring partner, said: 'We are pleased to have concluded the sale of the business to OCS Group, preserving more than 1,570 jobs.

'A sale of Fountains Group was the best option to secure the future of the business, which has been exposed to the difficult economic climate.

'Today's announcement enables the business to move forward confidently and on a secure financial footing.'

Fountains also has a �3.3m sub-contract to collect rubbish and recycling from thousands of households across Norwich, which it sub-lets to waste management business Biffa.

That contract involves about 60 jobs and the likelihood is that the council will seek to award an emergency contract to Biffa to ensure that work continues.

City council bosses said they have been in talks with Biffa, Fountains Group and the administrators about how to ensure people's bins are still emptied this week.

Alan Waters, cabinet member for resources at Norwich City Council, said: 'Our absolute priority is that we continue to provide the waste and recycling collections and other important services to our residents.

'As soon as we were told, we went into immediate discussions about how to maintain the waste and recycling contract with Biffa so that people's bins continue to be emptied and their recycling collected.

'We also focused on how to deliver the services Fountains has been providing, such as street cleaning, tree management and grounds maintenance at parks, cemeteries and open spaces in the city.

'We have already spoken to the administrator as a matter of urgency to discuss the continuation of these contracts and what we can do to try and protect local jobs.

'Sadly, this is another major company which has ceased to trade because of the difficult economic conditions and these unforeseen situations are now a financial reality for large organisations like ourselves, especially in the public sector.'

In March last year the Fountains Group had announced its long-term financial future had been secured, after it was sold to a group of financial investors including Royal Bank of Scotland and Alchemy Partners.

Richard Haddon, chief executive of Fountains, said at that time: 'This is a significant step for our company and provides us with stability and security of finance that will allow us to continue with our growth plans.

'I would like to sincerely thank our staff, customers, suppliers and contractors for their support especially in the last few months.'

The job losses come more than a year after a previous scare for the workers. Their jobs were saved when parent company Connaught Partnerships went into administration in September 2010.

Some 300 Norwich workers were made redundant when Connaught Partnerships – picked by Norwich City Council to carry out housing repair and maintenance work for the authority – went into administration.

Administrator KPMG secured the survival of the Connaught Environmental division, which was rebranded as Fountains.

See tomorrow's paper for the full story and reaction.

• Have you been affected by today's announcement? Call Evening News reporter Richard Wheeler on 01603 772474 or email richard.wheeler@archant.co.uk