AN operations director has been appointed to oversee a £20 million hotel and golf course project in North Yorkshire.

Iain Russell-Jarvie will head up Flaxby Park Golf and Country Club, a new 27-hole golf course and hotel complex being developed at Flaxby, between York and Harrogate.

Mr Russell-Jarvie will be responsible for managing the golf club, which opens on July 1, and keeping an eye on the development of Flaxby Park's four-star hotel with spa and conference facilities, scheduled for completion in autumn 2005.

The project is being developed on acres owned by three farmers - brothers Ian and Brian Mattocks, and Alan Armstrong.

Having spent more than 30 years in hotel and leisure management in the UK and overseas, Mr Russell-Jarvie was more recently resort director at the five star Quinta Do Lago Resort in Portugal.

He said: "Flaxby Park Golf and Country Club is set to be one of the premier golf and leisure facilities in the north of England. It will provide a very high standard of golf for private members as well as visitors, and its convenient location close to the A1M will make the hotel and spa very popular with discerning visitors to the region."

Updated: 11:34 Wednesday, May 12, 2004