A GROUND-BREAKING ceremony has been held to mark work starting on a new business park on the outskirts of Darlington town centre.

The 94-acre Symmetry Park site, near Lingfield Point, will include more than 1.6 million sq ft of employment space.

Tritax Big Box has exchanged contracts for the development of a new logistics centre, pre-let to an international online retailer, which is understood to be Amazon.

Darlington Borough Council leader Bill Dixon and and Ian Williams, Director for Economic Growth took part in the ceremony alongside Andrew Dickman, director at DB Symmetry.

Mr Dickman said, “There have been many months of collaboration with the local authority and stakeholders to create a scheme that will address the chronic shortage of modern logistics space to create tangible economic benefits to the region."

The company hopes work will be completed in summer 2019.