MORE than 80 new jobs will be created if a North Yorkshire frozen food firm's plans for a cold store get the go-ahead.

Borougbridge company Reed Boardall has drawn up a revised scheme for the store - after taking into account community fears about the scale of planned expansion.

Councillors and local groups expressed concern when the firm's original planning application was submitted in 2003.

The project was subsequently refused.

"We chose not to appeal and instead committed ourselves to a full and open community consultation," said managing director Keith Boardall.

"We have put in a substantially different proposal to the one we drew up last year.

"The new cold store will be considerably smaller than the previous one - in fact about half the size."

In addition, the frozen food distributor is proposing extensive landscaping improvements and a planting programme which includes 64 mature trees to create immediate screening.

There would also be 640m of new hedgerows and 6,500sq metres of new woodland planting.

Mr Boardall said. "Our customers need us to provide more cold storage space and if we can't do this our business and all the local jobs which rely on it will suffer.

"On the other hand, we have to take into account the concerns our expansion has on the local community."

The firm employs more than 570 staff.