HUNDREDS of jobs are up for grabs as work progresses on a new retail outlet park in a North-East employment blackspot.

Potential recruits for companies earmarked for the £40m Dalton Park development in Murton, east Durham, were yesterday given details of what will be on offer when the site opens in March.

Less than five months before opening, 70 per cent of the 75 retail units have been taken up, with developers confident that most will be occupied by next spring.

World-renowned sportswear brand Adidas has been secured as the key tenant, and the company is planning to open its biggest UK retail outlet at the centre in a 9,500 sq ft unit.

Other names already signed up are up-market women's wear designer Joseph, youngsters' fashion label Pilot, jewellers Chapelle, home furnishing company Pond and Mill, and footwear firm Stead and Simpson.

The project is being overseen by development company London and Amsterdam, which has appointed Pantheon Retail to manage the site.

Dalton Park is being developed on the reclaimed Dalton Flatts spoil heap adjoining the former Murton Colliery, a decade after the rundown of the Durham Coalfield.

Phase one will include 150,000 sq ft of space for retail and restaurant units, with parking for 1,200 vehicles, set in 55 acres of tree-lined parkland.

Planning consent for a further 150,000 sq ft of leisure facilities has been granted.

A jobs fair was staged yesterday at the nearby Glebe Centre, in Murton, with several of the companies to be based at Dalton Park represented, along with training providers including New College Durham.

Malcolm Godfrey, the project consultant for Pantheon Retail, said up to 800 full and part-time jobs will be created.

"Today was a chance to present it to the community and the general feeling is that it has been a success.

"We have had well over 200 people visiting and at the moment we are taking names and they are telling us their preferences for where they would like to work.

"This is a big hit for Murton - 800 jobs coming in the space of a month or two will have a big impact on any community, especially as most of the jobs will filled by locals."

Another jobs fair will be staged at Peterlee Leisure Centre, on Wednesday, from 10am to 3pm, with another next year