A CARAVAN hire business has been set up in North Tyneside by husband and wife team Jane and Trevor Payne.

The couple have established Compass Touring Caravan Hire, in Whitley Bay, allowing customers to rent a fully-equipped caravan and travel anywhere in the UK or Europe.

The pair launched the business at the beginning of this month and invested a substantial amount of money to buy five modern touring vans.

They also received a grant of about £4,000 from Building Up Business, in North Shields, North Tyneside.

Mrs Payne said: "It has been our ambition for some time as experienced caravan enthusiasts to create our own company and we are already taking customer bookings in the first month of the company trading, which is great.

"We know that going on caravan holidays is a very expensive hobby. We set up the company to allow people to go away without having the expense of owning and running the caravan.

"We did some market research and tested the waters by offering a weekend hire on eBay and the response has been really positive."

For more information, visit www.compasstouring.co.uk or call 0191-280 7238 for more information and a brochure.