THE Isle of Wight faces another economic setback with the confirmation that up to 61 engineering jobs at Trinity House in Cowes are to go.

As reported by the Daily Echo in August, Trinity House chiefs are making the move to counter the downturn in business caused partly by the shift to electronic navigation systems.

The proposals to close the Island-based business will bring to an end a 160-year tradition of providing navigation aids for the south's shipping from Cowes.

Operations will finish by 2007 when a major programme for the modernisation of navigation aids - including transforming buoys and automatic lighthouses to solar power - ends.

Trinity House - the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and the Channel Islands - will instead shift its operations to a base in Swansea along with a new development in Harwich.

The company says improved reliability of navigation equipment, coupled with the shift in commercial shipping to greater reliance on electronic navigation methods, have meant the Cowes base has become unprofitable.

Job losses will be kept to a minimum by keeping some technicians in the area along with retirements and voluntary redundancies, but the losses will come as a shock to Cowes, which is still reeling after GKN Westland's decision to pull out earlier this year resulted in more than 650 job losses.

Trinity House chairman, Rear Admiral Jeremy de Halpert, said: "We regret it will not be possible for us to justify a presence in Cowes beyond 2007."