AN industrial mini village with the capacity to create up to 1,000 jobs is to be developed on land in Bolton.

The new owners of the former Sandusky Walmsley factory in Crompton Way have pledged to redevelop the site over the next few years.

B&E Boys, of Rawtenstall, already owned a large swathe of land around the old works and is now developing the majority of the 45-acre site, known as Waters Meeting, for commercial use.

Sandusky Walmsley closed in October last year, with 170 job losses.

In January, Italian company PMT Italia took a five-year lease on the foundry in the factory, and 60 of the jobs were re-created.

B&E Boys chairman Brian Boys said: "Waters Meeting is a prime location for commercial development. It is easily accessible from the motorway system yet close to the town centre.

"It is sustainable because employees can walk or use public transport to get to work and there will be reasonable car parking facilities."

Phase One, consisting of six industrial units, has been completed and all have been taken.

Work is about to start on Phase Two, which will provide 50,000 square feet of industrial workspace in four units.

Phase three includes a 4,000 square feet office, which is also under construction, for national quantity surveyors company Deacon and Jones.

And in Phase Four, a technology park comprising five blocks of office space, including smaller units, will be built.

B&E Boys said it is now working on longer-term plans for the PMT Italia factory.

Mr Boys said he believed it would make an attractive location for a large distribution hub, offering more than 500,000 square feet of warehouse space.

The plans have the full backing of Bolton Council and local MPS.

Bolton North-east MP David Crausby, who worked in the Sandusky Walmsley factory for 27 years before joining Parliament in 1997, said: "This is fantastic news. When the factory closed there were fears that the site may have been more valuable if zoned for residential use and I was concerned as my constituency was already dominated by housing."

Councillor Akhtar Zaman, executive member for regeneration at Bolton Council, said: "These plans are great news, both for the existing workers and also for Bolton as a whole.

"The Council is working hard with B&E Boys to secure new employment uses on the former Sandusky Walmsley site."