ALL 25 members of staff of an Alton information technology company took their major grievance to the streets of London on Monday.

The directors of Switch IT of Newman Lane are accusing telecommunications giants BT of shabby dealings and broken promises which threaten to put the Alton company out of business.

Their protest was accompanied by two lorries each carrying giant 20ft by 10ft posters stating "It's good to talk —- but get it in writing - their word is not good enough", with BT's famous herald logo depicted as the devil.

But BT, whose spokesman denied that the company had any direct contact with Switch IT, responded by alerting the police rather than meet the protesters in person.

Nonetheless the demonstration passed off peacefully.

In June 1998 Switch IT won a lucrative contract to handle the IT disposal for British Telecom's millennium compliance project, a deal which the directors felt was tantamount to winning the lottery.

Beating off competition from far larger operations, Switch IT believed it was guaranteed that at least 40,000 computers would be available for collection. These items would then be refurbished and offered for sale to BT staff.

The reality was a grim catalogue of errors which rapidly turned Switch IT's dream of expansion into a nightmare.

"The equipment taken away was not as described by BT," company director Gary Slingo told The Herald, describing the majority of the items as "old, valueless junk", some even containing data in breach of BT's own security legislation.

The Switch directors believe that BT's own staff have been responsible for removing and auctioning anything of value prior to collection.

Despite various reassurances and promises from BT to sort the situation out, Mr Slingo and his colleagues have reached the conclusion that "they are unwilling to honour their contractual obligations" and are taking legal action.

A claim was due to be served on Wednesday, for damages in excess of £1m.

Should the claim not be successful the future of the company will be in grave doubt. "It would leave a big hole to get ourselves out of," Mr Slingo said. "I have a few other things up my sleeve, but nothing definite. I have every intention of making sure that closure would be the last option."

Denying that any direct contract existed with Switch IT, which obtained the work via Computacentre Plc, the BT spokesman added: "We have never given any guarantees of business volumes or prices".