An East Sussex factory which employs workers with physical disabilities is to close after no one could be found to run it.

The decision was announced after members of East Sussex County Council's Social Services and Health Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the possible closure of Castleham Industries on Castleham Industrial Estate, St Leonards, on Tuesday.

Councillor Trevor Webb, chairman of the scrutiny committee, said: "We care desperately about the future of these people and it was important for us to make sure all possible avenues had been explored to try to keep Castleham open."

Committee members heard the factory, a print works, had been in operation for the past 27 years and employed 29 people with varying physical disabilities.

A two-year search to find a suitable organisation to take over the factory had proved futile.

Reg Franks, a production supervisor at Castleham, said the mood among staff was sombre as they prepared to leave.

He said: "We are a bit down at the moment. The council has guaranteed to find work and pay the staff until they do but it's not quite the same thing."

He said that for some of the workforce, disability had happened as a result of an accident in adult life and the factory acted as a vital bridge to get people who had lost their confidence back into work.

Mr Franks said: "Coming to terms with a disability is one thing, coming to terms with going to work with it is something else."

Coun Webb said committee members would keep a close eye on how resettlement for employees was going.