A LONG-AWAITED bottling plant will be open next spring at a North Yorkshire brewery, it was announced today.

The £20 million investment, to be built on waste ground within John Smiths, Tadcaster, is set to create 40 new jobs.

The new plant will package the equivalent of four million pints of lager every week.

John Smiths was given planning permission for the plant last year, but building work was suspended to allow the brewery's parent company, Scottish Courage, to conduct a nationwide review of its packaging capabilities.

The state-of-the-art plant will be able to bottle a total of 100,000 bottles of beer every hour, handling from 200ml bottles up to 1,000ml bottles and everything in between.

Bottling could take place around the clock.

Company spokesman David Jones said: "It will be very powerful and will have great flexibility.

"It is great news for Tadcaster, and I am delighted to be able to reveal the good news today."

The new complex will be made up of two bottling lines, which will package lagers such as Kronenbourg, Miller and Fosters, most of which will be delivered to the plant from elsewhere.

The new jobs generated by the complex will be advertised later this month.

Selby MP John Grogan said: "I visited the plant a couple of weeks ago and even at that stage I could detect there was a great deal of confidence that a positive decision towards the plant was imminent.

"Clearly this is a big vote of confidence for the plant."

Mayor of Tadcaster Ted Mansfield said: "We've always supported the complex and it will bring some great jobs to Tadcaster, which will be well paid. It really is good news."

Updated: 10:58 Friday, October 03, 2003