DARWEN is set for a new year jobs boost after company bosses announced they were moving premises.

Up to 20 new vacancies look set to be created at a motorway-based restaurant and hotel following the recent closure of the Little Chef, Preston New Road, Samlesbury.

About 10 staff are expected to be transferred to the new restaurant from the old one.

Bosses at Little Chef said they decided to relocate to Junction Four of the M65, at Darwen and Ewood, to provide a better service for customers in East Lancashire.

The 40-acre motorway site is currently under development and is also set to include a McDonald's, complete with drive-through.

The news is the second jobs boost in a month for Darwen after the recent announcement of plans for a new industrial premises in Spring Vale Road, which would bring another 40 jobs to the town.

It is expected that 35 industrial staff and five office staff would be taken on at the proposed engineering and manufacturing factory should council bosses give the site the go-ahead.

The new Little Chef restaurant is due to be built alongside a 48-bedroom hotel, which developers are expecting to be complete by the end of February.

The former restaurant closed its door for the final time last week.

Company bosses said all 10 staff at the former restaurant had been offered new employment at the new site, although it is not known how many of them have accepted the vacancies.

A spokesman for Little Chef said: "Over the past year or so we have consolidated our estates and opened some bigger sites where we no longer have restaurants that stand on their own. They are more often than not now accompanied by other restaurants or hotels.

"It is all part of the plan to provide a bigger and better service for our customers.

"The former site is still up for sale and we have had a lot of interest in the property but no buyers as yet.

"Anybody who wanted to stay working for the company was offered alternative employment at the new site."