MORE than 250 new jobs are on the way to Blackburn after a firm announced expansion plans.

And MDA's scheme to build on the site of an old mill will also cut the risk of Mill Hill being flooded.

MDA, which specialises in the storage and distribution of posters, beer mats and other customised goods and the storage of pallets, already employs around 120 people at its existing base in Waterfall Mill.

But the new building, which will cost £3.5million and will be built on the site of the old Cardwell Mill in Albert Street, Blackburn, will create another 268 jobs.

Planning permission for their new four-acre development, which will include a three and four storey building, was granted by members of Blackburn with Darwen's planning and highways committee.

It is subject to the firm coming to an agreement with the Environment Agency on a flood defence scheme which will prevent the River Darwen bursting its banks again. As well as storing extra Point of Sale merchandise, an extra 25,000 pallets could be stored on the new site. MDA managing director Ian Stead told the committee: "This is one of the most ambitious developments on a mill site anywhere in the UK.

"It is an exciting warehouse development which will lead to us employing an extra 268 people in addition to the 120 we already employ at our other site.

"It will provide valuable employment opportunities in Mill Hill, and the borough as a whole, and also provides a chance to sort out the once-in-100-years flooding threat."

A petition containing seven signatures had been lodged against the project, but it was approved by the committee.

Among the firms MDA counts as its clients are Stella Artois, Martel, Pernod, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, TGI Friday's, Welcome Break and the big four pub companies -- Punch, Pubmaster, Enterprise Inns and Laurel.

The firm was founded by Michael Davies, its chief executive, in 1987 in Blackpool. Its first base in Blackburn, in Mill Hill's Queen Victoria Street, was bought in 1989. Three years later, they moved to Waterfall Mill and the company relocated to the town entirely in 1997.