AN art company will move its Wealdstone headquarters out of the borough to White City, it announced today.

The decision by ColArt finally sounds the death knell for its presence in Harrow after it announced the closure of the Windsor & Newton site, in Wealdstone, after more than 70 years, in July last year.

The factory, which supplies Prince Charles' household, was seen as one of the last outposts of a bygone era when the borough had a strong industrial presence.

A campaign was launched to keep ColArt in the area and the decision, announced to staff this morning, was met with disappointment.

Councillor Keith Ferry, responsible for planning, development and enterprise at Harrow Council, said: “It's a great blow to the borough.

“We want to bring in more business rather than lose business. If people want to relocate then there's not much we can do about it.

“I just hope that someone else might come in there and take over the site.”

Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East, said: “I find that amazingly disappointing and completely contrary to the promises they made to everyone involved with the decision to move the manufacturing.

“It is a slap in the face for the workforce for the unions and for everyone that said they should actually carry on and do the development work in the local area.

“They were offered the chance to move to the Kodak site.”

The new global headquarters will be based in Notting Dale Village, in the White City area, and the company hopes to make the move in November, having closed the factory in the late summer or autumn.

The Wealdstone site had a staff of 200 before the decision to move the manufacturing arm to France was made, but just 56 head office employees will go to West London.

Neil Robson, the managing director, said the company has searched extensively for a new home but “it became obvious that staying at our current Wealdstone site would not be a viable option”.

He said: “Whilst we will be sad to leave Wealdstone, our proposed new London offices will enable us to grow our research & development (R&D) capabilities; house all our current HQ staff in a contemporary, open plan environment and enable us to realise our business aim for building recognition and interaction within the art community.

“ColArt and its advisors will continue to work with Harrow Council to explore all options for our current premises on Whitefriars Avenue.

“We will continue to work with the Council in consultation with local residents to examine potential uses for the premises in the context of Harrow Council’s on-going strategic review of major sites.”