ONE of East Lancashire's leading development firms has taken delivery of £1million worth of plant to keep their projects ticking over.

Bosses at Nelson-based Barnfield Construction placed an order for 20 new telehandlers, in different models, from Gunn JCB.

The first began arriving for the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate based outfit in December, with the rest scheduled to be in East Lancs before the end of the month.

Currently Barnfield is on-site at the likes of the new Reel Cinema in Blackburn and the Hampton by Hilton hotel development at Whitebirk.

Simon Haworth, the firm's plant manager, said: "We've found the customer service has always been very good from Gunn JCB, as has the quality of the machines

"In the four years’ ownership of the previous fleet, there have been no issues or faults so these factors played a large part in our decision to choose JCB again for our new fleet.

"Richard Hadfield has been great to deal with and provided a high level of customer service throughout the sales and delivery process.”

The Nelson firm, which has been going for more than 40 years and has a turnover of £80million, has development arrangements with several East Lancashire authorities.

Workers were also involved in both the recent Northlight redevelopment of the former Brierfield Mills as well as the first phase of the Spinning Point project, which has seen a new bus station operational in Rawtenstall.