AROUND 30 people working at Carmarthenshire TV production company Tinopolis are to lose their jobs following S4C budget cuts, it has been announced.

The company has confirmed it is to shut its studio in Caernarfon, North Wales, and is also being forced to make staff redundant at its Llanelli HQ.

The move — which will see around 30 jobs go in Llanelli and around eight in Caernarfon — has been triggered by a 65 per cent cut in S4C's budget for the magazine programmes Wedi 3 and Wedi 7.

The programmes have been cancelled after being broadcast live for 20 years.

Company chairman Ron Jones said it was not an easy decision to make. "Tinopolis may be a global company now but Llanelli is our home, so to make these sort of cuts in the town where we are based is very sad," he said. "But unfortunately you can't employ people where there is no work for them. "The Wedi 3 and Wedi 7 programmes are due to be replaced with a more tabloid- based programme which is based in the studio, meaning we need half the number of staff.

"Whereas before the programmes focused on building relationships with S4C and the communities in Wales, we will be going out a lot less now which means the number of camera crews we need has had to be reduced from eight to just two.

"Most of the people who are affected at Llanelli were brought into the industry by us and trained up by us, so this is very difficult and not something we wanted to do at all."

He added that financially, the S4C budget cut would not affect the company overall.

"Tinopolis has grown successfully in recent years and what we do for S4C is actually a very small part of our total work," he added.

"Financially it won't have a big impact on us, but to lose staff from our Llanelli base is acutely worse than losing them anywhere else as the town is our headquarters. We feel this so much more, as Llanelli is where we began."

About four per cent of Tinopolis's revenues come from S4C.

Tinopolis owns production companies in London and the USA, and has just won a contract to make a youth version of Question Time.

Llanelli AM Keith Davies said he was finding out what support could be offered to staff by the Assembly and had asked Business Minister Edwina Hart to look into the matter.

"Any job losses are a concern," he added.