SEVEN jobs are to be created when the expansion of a Hartlepool optician is completed.

Specsavers is investing £300,000 on a store expansion and refit for the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre premises. It began early last month and should be finished next week.

The store has also relocated from Princess Anne View to the shopping centre.

The expansion, which will double the size of the store, has created space for a specialised contact lens centre.

There will also be additional consulting rooms, new disabled facilities including a loop system to aid customers with hearing difficulties, and extra office space and testing areas.