'Ghost town' fears haunt UK steel community

This is the best three weeks I've ever had," steelworker Kian Hopkins said of his new job at a Scunthorpe plant, even though locals fear its potential closure would turn their home into a "ghost town".

- James Pheby, Agence France-Presse

Smeared in soot, 18-year-old Hopkins said after his shift at the British Steel plant: "I shovel and all that lot, it's amazing. It's hard work but it makes your day go faster... when you get your paycheck."

However, he added that it was "quite a dramatic time to start working here, I'm having people message me going 'the job might be getting taken off you'." The plant in northeast England is the last in the UK to produce virgin steel used in construction and rail transport. Its future was thrown into jeopardy in March when Chinese owner Jingye said the plant was losing £700,000 ($923,000) a day and was "no longer financially sustainable".

It rejected a bailout deal with the UK government, which this weekend secured emergency legislation giving it control over the site in order to keep the blast furnaces burning. A long-term solution has yet to be agreed, leaving the plant's 2,700 workers in limbo. Steel has dominated the Lincolnshire town since the 19th century, with the plant's chimneys towering over low-rise houses.