A new Jumbo-sized business park is set to take off at a former airport in North Yorkshire, creating up to 3,000 jobs.

Yorkshire Forward, the body spearheading the region's economic regeneration, announced the jobs bonanza today after buying 85 acres of stagnant land on the disused Sherburn-in-Elmet airfield.

The Government quango told the Evening Press it had bought the land for £4.5 million just a few days ago from a local family trust.

The site is next to the existing Sherburn Enterprise Park, and Yorkshire Forward plans to develop a massive 127,000 square metres of floor space, generating 3,000 new jobs.

Yorkshire Forward chiefs have forged a unique partnership with Yorkshire Food Parks Limited, which specialises in the development of food-related business parks.

The new partnership will specifically target food sector businesses when they start to market the site, having seen Supercook and Somerfield move on to the first phase enterprise park next door.

Yorkshire Forward spokeswoman Janice Crich said infrastructure work would start on the site early next year.

They would team up with Yorkshire Food Parks Limited in a two-pronged marketing campaign, selling plots of land to food sector businesses for design and build projects.

She said they viewed Sherburn as one of Yorkshire's strategic employment sites with easy access to a road network, which included the A1, M1 and M62.

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