FOUR HUNDRED Ordnance Survey workers in Southampton have plumped for voluntary redundancy after the national mapping agency said it wanted to axe 300 jobs.

So many workers wanted to take the offer that bosses were swamped and allowed another 50 to go.

Now 350 workers are waiting to find out if their application has been successful and letters are due to drop on to doorsteps today.

The government mapping offshoot, which employs 1,450 people at its Maybush HQ, announced it was looking to shed around 300 jobs.

Bosses of the historic agency, which was founded in 1791, always said they hoped to shed the staff with no forced redundancies and a spokesman said it was "great news" that they had managed to pull it off.

After inviting applications for voluntary redundancy, the agency had 400 staff apply. The number was higher than expected, prompting bosses to allow another 50 workers to leave.

Now 250 staff from the Romsey Road headquarters are set to go, with another 100 from field offices scattered around the UK.

A spokesman said: "The numbers - from an overall payroll of around 1,850 staff - are broadly in line with those envisaged when the voluntary scheme was announced last October ahead of a period of consultation with trades unions. The aim of the scheme is to avoid redundancies while reducing staff numbers and changing the skills base in some areas of the business. It is based on releasing staff from jobs which are no longer required so that we can ensure Ordnance Survey remains innovative and successful in the future."

The agency said the move was the inevitable result of the digital age and increased competition.

"The move reflects the reality of technological and business change, both of which mean we can enhance quality and improve customer service with fewer staff," said a spokesman.

But there were howls of indignation when the Daily Echo revealed the agency had signed a £23m deal with an Indian firm to produce a digital map of the UK.

Workers said valuable British jobs were being lost in favour of cheap Indian labour - something Ordnance Survey has always denied.

One insider forecast a bleak future for the Southampton HQ.

He said: "Not only is Ordnance Survey management deciding to reduce staff but most of its cartographic work is now going to India.

"In time, probably within two years, there will be no cartographic work carried out at Ordnance Survey headquarters. All headquarters will be is a warehouse for digital map data to be sold out to cheap labour so it can be turned into maps."

Today's redundancies are the latest in a lengthy line of staff cutbacks at the agency. In 1970, Ordnance Survey employed 4,700 people. The latest cuts mean that figure will shortly drop to just 1,500 people nationwide. Yet the map agency says it is more productive now than ever before.