Workers laid off from a Bradford car centre have joined forces to go it alone.

The four employees from Appleyard Rover in Canal Road learned they faced redundancy last month when parent company Lancaster announced it was closing the site.

The service centre staff pooled their redundancy payments to rent a garage in Toller Lane and hope to open on January 2.

Service advisor Chris Stefanuti said: "We feel there is a big gap in the market and that we can build upon the service that customers received at Appleyard."

The business - Viking Service Centre - cost £5,000 to launch and will target all Rover drivers in the Bradford area.

Mr Stefanuti said: "The Appleyard operation moved to Leeds and we felt it was important that customers in this city had a local service centre to come to.

"We pride ourselves on our commitment to Bradford customers.

"It has been a lot of hard work so far but it is an exciting prospect to be working for yourself."

Dave Rowntree, former technical controller at Appleyard Rover, said: "I had worked there for 26 years so when I learned I was losing my job I was absolutely gutted. Now we are optimistic and concentrating on providing a good service."

He said the Appleyard Rover service department had an outstanding record, ranked eighth in the country in a group customer satisfaction survey.

Mr Rowntree added: "We have more than 50 years experience between us and we feel this will allow us to provide an even better service with the freedom to run our own operation."