Forty new jobs are being created in Dereham thanks to a traffic management and highway maintenance business establishing a depot in the market town.Trek Highway Services, which has its headquarters is in Thetford, is setting up a new Eastern Area Operating Centre in Hall Lane, Dereham, on the former Randells site.

Forty new jobs are being created in Dereham thanks to a traffic management and highway maintenance business establishing a depot in the market town.

Trek Highway Services, which has its headquarters is in Thetford, is setting up a new Eastern Area Operating Centre in Hall Lane, Dereham, on the former Randells site.

The company, which took over the premises at the beginning of the month, organises the traffic management side of road works that are undertaken by the Norfolk Strategic Partnership.

Laurence Clark, eastern area manager, said the new site was chosen because it is ideally situated in the heart of the county.

He said: “About 70pc of the work in the eastern division is generated through the Norfolk Strategic Partnership which is Norfolk County Council and May Gurney. We do the traffic management side, not the roadworks. We sort out all the road closures.

“Being in Dereham makes sense because it is totally central to the eastern region we serve.

“It makes sense on fuel economy and movement of vehicles. We are next to the A47 which makes it easy to dispatch vehicles to Norwich, King's Lynn and Yarmouth.”

He said the plan was run about 40 vehicles from the site, and said 40 people were already working there. Another 40 people, including a mechanic and road workers are soon to be recruited.

The Dereham base will also be a home to the company's arboricultural and horticultural arm called GREENedge, which incorporates verge management and work with trees. There will be a special planting area in the Dereham site for trees.

GREENedge is also currently involved in an investigation into the environmental implications of felling or preserving trees.

The company's new traffic lights division, which includes between 150 and 200 sets of traffic lights, will also be based there and the many different types of road works signs will be stored there too.

The company is also seeking permission to run its road sweeping and gully sucking (the method used to clean the roads' drainage systems) elements from the site. It wants to create a recycling unit to process waste collected from the gulley sucking and road sweeping.

Randells, which sells and services garden and grounds machinery, has been based on the site since 1996.

It will be moving to new premises in Shipdham Road, Toftwood, within the next few weeks.

For more information about the new jobs available at Trek Highway Services call 0800 121TREK.