THE new Euro-Garages Frontier Park services near the M65's Junction Six will be officially opened today with record-breaking athlete Ron Hill as guest of honour.

Accrington's Olympic long-distance runner will join the Mayor and Mayoress of Hyndburn Cllr Mohammad Ayub and his wife Noreen for the formal ribbon cutting ceremony.

The service area of the Whitebirk roundabout, which include a BP petrol station with a SPAR convenience store, Starbucks drive-thru, KFC drive-thru, Subway, Greggs drive-thru, Krispy Kreme concession and Totally Wicked vaping retail counter, has been in operation since late last month.

Also attending the event will be leader of Hyndburn Borough Council Cllr Miles Parkinson, its chief executive David Welsby, Cllr Tony Dobson who leads the opposition Conservative group, and David Sanderson, deputy lieutenant for Lancashire.

The service area, which has created 130 new jobs, is part of a business park which will include five warehouses due for completion by 2022.

Zuber Issa, founder and co-chief executive of the, EG Group said: “Frontier Park represents an important commercial development scheme for East Lancashire. The roadside services are the first piece of a wider development which includes a distribution, logistics and manufacturing hub with one million square feet of employment space, as well as a new hotel and conference facility.

“When complete, the Frontier Park scheme will deliver around 2,000 new jobs across 90 acres of industrial, manufacturing, logistics, retail and leisure space. The location will provide a significant boost to the local economy.”

The service area includes electric vehicle fast-charging points.