Around 15 staff are set to lose their jobs at Barringtons of York and two apprentices will no longer be taken on  following the sale of the company’s site to York Museum Trust (YMT). The sale was backed by a £525,000 finance deal with York City Council.

Managing director Mark Snee said he had been left with no choice but to close the company, which has been given until the end of December to move, after it was unable to find another suitable property in York.

Snee was left furious after YMT, which owns an identical building next door used for the storage of artefacts, trumped his own bid in a move that is at odds with the coalition’s promise to offer "total commitment" to support British manufacturing.

Snee said: "The council doesn’t deserve to have manufacturing and it is no surprise that most of it has gone. It rather beggars belief that a local authority should kick a manufacturing business ‘down the road’ just so it can store museum artefacts that it has nowhere to exhibit.

"The government has said that manufacturing is going to get us out of the economic mess we are in – storing artefacts won’t. York council is moving in the opposite direction to the government."

Snee added that the sale of Barringtons’ site had cast doubt over the future of the former commercial print arm of Sessions of York, which Technoprint bought earlier this year.

Technoprint claimed that it had intended to merge the four-staff business with Barringtons as Sessions’ premises had also been sold to make way for a housing development.

According to a YMT spokesman, the addition of a second building will free up space at York Art Gallery and York Castle Museum, which is being used for storage.

It said: "This purchase was a once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire a store where, crucially, development is possible to sustain our storage needs for the next 20 years.

"We are not aware of the circumstances of the existing tenant, or of their relationship with the vendor and therefore we cannot comment on their business."

A City of York Council spokeswoman, added: "The premises have been offered on the open market by a
reputable local agent and it is open to any other party to submit a bid to the agent if they so wish."