A RECYCLING company set up with £500,000 of funding will open its doors to the public tomorrow as it is officially launched.

Prosperity Recycling Limited started as an idea put forward by the Clayton-le-Moors Prospects Panel three years ago but only became reality when the government and European cash was granted.

The company will produce and sell garden equipment made from recycled materials, and will create 27 jobs.

Seven of them will be supervisory, while the production jobs will be offered to people with learning disabilities.

The company aims to be self-sufficient by the fourth year, by which time it should have generated income and funding of £1.1million

Tomorrow it will hold an open day where visitors can meet and talk to staff, directors and trainees, and see and buy products from the factory, based at Fairfield House, Charter Street, Accrington.

There will also be an opportunity to tour the three recycling workshops and hear an overview of the company's aims and objectives.

"It's been a long haul but production is fine and everything else is more or less up and working," said Shirley Wilkinson, project development manager.

"We have trainees in every day and the enthusiasm is certainly there and building all the time.

"We want people to know we are here."

Prosperity will be run in conjunction with Clitheroe-based Trinity Community Partnership who specialise in providing services for people with learning difficulties.

Funding came from the European Regional Development Fund, the Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, and the Lancashire Environmental Fund.