Last week BAe systems announced it was laying off 700 people and moving the programme to build Type 45 Destroyers from the Barrow shipyard to the Clyde.

The move has been strongly opposed in Barrow and a delegation of objectors is travelling to London on Monday to try to have the decision reversed.

But Community Action Furness has said the town must not rely on financial help from the Government to survive if the delegation does not succeed.

It is not a time to sit and scratch our heads, I think we have to all get our act together Anne Diss, Community Action Furness

The group was set up during the mass shipyard redundancies of the 1990s to help regenerate the town.

Chief executive Anne Diss told BBC Radio Cumbria if Barrow is to survive this time, it must reinvent itself, and action must be taken quickly to prevent a serious decline.

She said: "I think Barrow has to develop a new perception of itself and part of that must be about not looking backwards to what has been.

"I don't think there is just one solution, so possibly the development of tourism is one route, possibly bringing new technologies here is another route.

"I think the only way forward is multi-solutions."

"It is not a time to sit and scratch our heads, I think we have to all get our act together."

Behind schedule

BAe Systems said it is removing the assembly of 11 Type 45 Destroyers from the Barrow yard's order book, to allow total concentration on the completion of the Astute Submarine programme.

The project is currently two years behind schedule.

John Hutton, the local MP, Harry Knowles of Furness Enterprise and the shipyard union confederation chairman Kevin Coyne will meet Lord Bach, the Defence Procurement Minister on Monday.

They are then due to meet the Barrow shipyard's ultimate boss, Brian Phillipson of BAe to discuss the issue.