THE region received welcome economic news yesterday with more than 200 new jobs set to be created at a marine project firm.

CTC Marine Projects will relocate to a new site in Darlington in August after announcing a multi-million pound expansion scheme.

Recruitment for the posts, which will be at their new Coniscliffe House offices and offshore, will begin immediately, and company MD Charles Tompkins was delighted with the move.

He said: "Darlington is an excellent base for an internationally operational company like CTC.

"Excellent transport links to London and easy access to two airports make it ideal for visitors and staff alike while Coniscliffe House itself provides us with a prime central location in an attractive building.

"For a company offering advanced and specialist technology like CTC, it is important to project a progressive and forward thinking image and the refurbishment at Coniscliffe House will help us do this."

The firm, which carries out installation and maintenance of undersea fibre optic telecoms cables worldwide, has finalised a deal on the 12,000 sq ft Coniscliffe House site, where the conversion cost will be around £650,000.

It decided on the move from their former Middlesbrough base because of "an absence of quality town centre office space in Teesside".

Middlesbrough Town Centre Company chief executive Les Southerton said: "We are aware that there is a problem in terms of office environment and office space in the town centre, and we aim to tackle that problem.

"However the town centre company does all it can to help firms seeking new premises, and CTC never contacted us for help or to voice their concerns."

The conversion of the Darlington site is headed by Adrian Speir, director of Landteam, the Darlington-based company which acquired the building last Autumn.

CTC said it will become a significant employer of technical, engineering and support staff in the Darlington area