Nearly 250 jobs have been secured with the opening of a new company headquarters in Basildon.

Asbestos removal specialists Pectel are to mark the opening of their new £1.5 million head office on Burnt Mills Road with a visit by football stars Pat Jennings and Frank McLintock and Former world boxing champion John Conteh.

The complex, which took 18 months to complete, will house at least 45 office staff controlling bases in Staffordshire, Cardiff and the south of France and will also be the HQ for 200 construction workers.

Lee Brown, senior administration manager at Pectel, said: "It's a wonderful site here and we are very happy with the new office."

"We've been in Basildon for ten years when we moved from Southend to move closer to transport links and the road network.

"We could have moved closer to the M25, which would have been good, but 95 per cent of our workers are from here in Basildon, so we are happy to stay."

Staff have already moved into the new office, but the sporting stars will be on hand tomorrow to mark the official opening.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.