WORK will finally get under way next week on a Darlington town-centre bar, more than three years after planning permission was granted.

The Lloyds No 1 bar, which will be operated by the Wetherspoons pub group, is expected to open on Monday, May 8.

The £1.2m development - which will also create up to 45 full and part-time jobs - will open in the building on the corner of Priestgate and Crown Street, which was formerly the First Freeze store, but has stood derelict for several years.

Conversion work on the premises will begin on Monday.

Planning permission and a provisional drinks licence were granted by Darlington Borough Council in 2002. But despite plans for the scheme to get under way within months, a series of setbacks and a dispute between Wetherspoons and the owner of the building caused the delay.

However, work is now under way and the company said they are "delighted" they will be opening a Lloyds No 1 in Darlington, and that they have a definite opening date for the bar.

A Wetherspoons' spokes-person added they are hopeful that work on the bar will be to schedule, and that opening is less than five months away.

Their current premises in Darlington, the Tanners Hall, will be unaffected by the development.