International aggregates company Hanson say there has been a good deal of interest from prospective buyers of their Bath & Portland dimensional stone operations, which they have put up for sale.

"We are now at a stage where we have prepared a short list of bidders. When the bids have been examined we will go forward to the next stage of working with the preferred bidder," says company spokesman David Weeks."We are a tiny bit behind schedule but we hope to get the process done and dusted by the end of summer, early autumn."

The 180 people employed by Bath & Portland, headed by Neil Porter, are being kept in touch with the progress of the sale by a newsletter being published especially for them. Bath & Portland are concerned not to lose staff. "You don\'t just find skilled stonemasons at the job centre," said David Weeks.

One senior member of staff, Colin Goble, who headed sales, has resigned. Colin, who is senior vice-president of Stone Federation Great Britain, had been with Bath & Portland for 10 years and with Hanson (previously ARC) for more than 30 years.

The Bath & Portland sale includes quarries and masonry works on Portland, two active Bath stone mines, the former Drings of Bath masonry works at Keynsham that Bath & Portland bought in 1998 and Flick and Guiting quarries at temple Guiting in Gloucestershire.

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