Plans for industrial action at the North West Evening Mail have been scrapped after management lifted the threat of compulsory redundancies.

On Christmas Eve it emerged that journalists at the CN Group daily were balloting their National Union of Journalists members over possible strike action as the company was looking to shed four editorial posts.

A sports reporter threatened with compulsory redundancy has now taken up an unfilled vacant news reporting role while two other journalists have taken voluntary redundancy.

An editorial assistant who isn't an NUJ member is the only member of staff to have been compulsorily redundant.

The ballot of NUJ members at the title returned a 72pc vote in favour of some form of industrial action if the company pushed ahead with compulsory redundancies.

The cuts in Barrow-in-Furness are part of a wider plan by the CN Group to reduce staffing by up to 40 posts.

Father of the chapel Paul Turner said: "There are now no compulsory redundancies of journalists at Barrow and that was the basis on which we balloted for industrial action.

"We are very happy that this was resolved with no compulsory redundancies from our members."

The NUJ also says that the chapel has agreed to hold talks with management over an agreed annual pay rise of just over 5pc.

Both North West Evening Mail editor Jonathan Lee and CN Group chief executive Robin Burgess were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.