AROUND 300 jobs will be created at Simonstone with the launch of a new call centre for the Government's Pensions Agency.

Simonstone is one of 20 sites chosen throughout the UK as regional centres for the new agency which will deal with queries about retirement pensions.

Around 100 staff will transfer from existing DSS offices, but at least 200 managerial and clerical jobs will be created.

Burnley Jobcentre manager Mrs Doreen Eastwood said recruitment would begin later this month with the centre expected to open in October.

The centre will be located in an existing building at the Shuttleworth link road traffic lights, close to the Shuttleworth Mead business park.

The Pensions Agency is part of the Government's Department for Work and Pensions, created from parts of the Departments for Social Security and Education and Employment.

Regional call centres will also be built in Blackpool and Greater Manchester.

Tory MP Nigel Evans, whose Ribble Valley constituency includes Simonstone, said: "This is excellent news. I have always believed that government jobs should be spread throughout the United Kingdom, not just concentrated in London. "I hope that this will give a much needed boost to the area."

The jobs boost was welcomed by Councillor John Hill who represents Simonstone on Ribble Valley Council. But his joy at seeing new investment in the village was tempered by his fears of the impact on traffic.

"We obviously welcome any initiative to create employment, " he said. Having said that, residents near to the industrial estates at Altham and Simonstone are extremely concerned that the jobs are not being coupled with the infrastructure needed for the extra traffic.

"We have got what is probably the largest growth of industrial estates in Lancashire, yet there has been no thought given to the state of the traffic which has increased enormously.

"Residents feel very let down by Lancashire County Council. We are living on the edge of a massive industrial estate and we just feel we have been abandoned."