A company boss has pledged to take on apprentices and create new jobs in engineering as part of a £500,000 project to expand his factory.

Planners are set to approve the extension to the Dean Smith & Grace works in Pitt Street, Keighley, when they meet on Thursday in Keighley.

DSG Lathes managing director Richard Hole has won backing from Keighley Single Regeneration Budget board which is pumping £165,000 into the project.

"We are hoping to take on apprentices and will be starting interviewing potential people soon. We've had no apprentices for five years and we need to train people up because there's a shortage of skilled people," he said.

He said he hoped to have the new building completed by September when the company would be looking to recruit more skilled engineers.

Mr Hole set up the business in 1993 when the old company folded. He now employs 30 on a split site in Pitt Street and Quarry Street, Keighley.

"The tenders are already out for the project and we are keen to get started in April,'' he added.

The company manufactures computer controlled and manual lathes but also sub-contracts out about £200,000 worth of business to local companies in the Keighley area. It also re-builds and services Dean Smith & Grace lathes, of which there are thousands throughout the country and abroad.

A spokesman for Bradford planners said the development would include measures to control noise levels to reduce the potential for disturbance to nearby homes.

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