A MAJOR North-East employer will today move from its home of more than 30 years.

Mining and development company The Banks Group, which has been split between offices in Tow Law and West Cornforth, County Durham, is moving to a purpose-built office in Durham City.

The firm, founded in Tow Law in 1976 and employing 400, said the move to St John’s Road, in Meadowfield, would enable it to bring all its officebased operations under one roof.

The change, involving its 100 office-based workers, will see the Tow Law site close, with only its transport and plant workshops remaining at West Cornforth.

The family-owned business, with operations across the North of England and Scotland, works in the surface mining, renewable energy, property development and waste management sectors.

Chief executive Harry Banks said: “This is an important landmark in the group’s evolution.

“Our new, high-quality office accommodation will both facilitate a range of logistical and efficiency improvements, and will provide a platform from which we will be able to continue the development of our mining, renewable energy and property development operations.

We are making major investments in new projects in all these fields and our move represents the continuing confidence we have that the North-East provides the perfect base from which we can achieve our future business ambitions.”

Mark Dowdall, the firm’s environment and community director, said staff were positive about the move to new premises, adding: “We employ people from all over the North-East and for some of them it will be more convenient.

“The new office is halfway between the two existing offices and it will cut down on the travel for people attending meetings. It has been the intention of the business for a number of years to come together under one roof and this is the culmination.

“It grew too big for the location in Tow Law and we needed to invest in new premises. We needed to bring all the functions together under one roof.”

Mr Dowdall admitted that Tow Law would always be close to the heart of the business and it had written to residents thanking them for their support over the years.

He said: “We still employ a lot of people from Tow Law and we want to benefit the Tow Law community and support them through our community fund.”

The new office has a number of sustainable development features including rainwater harvesting and re-use, built-in recycling facilities and modern energy and water management systems.

In addition, staff are to be encouraged to look at sustainable ways of travelling to work and the firm is looking into installing an electric vehicle charging post.