A TASKFORCE led by the Scottish Government was meeting today to try to help find a lifeline for the cash stricken Ferguson Shipbuilder's yard at Port Glasgow.

Seventy workers were sacked the morning after the last shipyard on the Lower Clyde was put into voluntary liquidation on Thursday night with an empty order book and crippling debts made worse by recent cash flow problems.

Insolvency experts at KPMG who have retained just seven staff are attempting to find a buyer for a yard which was established in 1902 and which in recent years specialised in roll-on/roll-off passenger ferries.

And today Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney was to chair the first meeting of a taskforce which has been launched to try to save the historic yard.

Local MSP Stuart McMillan who is Port Glasgow born and bred was due to attend the meeting. He said: "The Fergusons Taskforce is a welcome initiative to try and find a positive outcome from what is clearly a terrible situation.

"I remain optimistic about the future of Ferguson's and I would like to think that ships will once again be built in Inverclyde in the future."