Martin: I’ll open 60 new Spoons
100MPH STORM HITS (BUT DON’T CALL IT BRENDAN...)
JD Wetherspoon plans to create 10,000 jobs and invest more than £200million in pubs and hotels.
The chain says around 60 boozers and at least four hotels will be opened over the next four years.
It currently employs 44,000 people in its 875 pubs and 58 hotels.
The plan includes new bars in Bourn in Lincs, Diss in Norfolk, Ely in Cambs, Felixstowe in Suffolk, Hamilton in Lanarks, and Prestatyn, Denbighs.
Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin said: “We are especially pleased that a large proportion of the investment will be in smaller towns and cities which have seen a decline in investment in recent years.
“The fact that we will be creating approximately 10,000 jobs is great news too.”
Last month Martin, 64, was re-elected as executive chairman of the firm he founded and added that he hopes to “do another 40” years before he retires.
FEROCIOUS 100mph gales battered Britain yesterday, blowing over lorries and causing traffic chaos for drivers.
A spate of weather warnings for high winds and rain were issued by the Met Office, with conditions causing delays on roads and railways.
The north of England Scotland were worst hit.
Two HGVs were blown over on the A1 near Skateraw in East Lothian, closing the road in both directions at rush hour.
Organisers of Edinburgh’s Christmas market were forced to halt rides, while Santa’s grotto and the market closed.
In south-west London a tower crane collapsed on to a building at Kingston University. No-one is believed to have been hurt.
Fears the gales would be severe enough to be given a name – Storm Brendan – were relaxed. But the Met Office said and that could all coming days.
Spokesman Alex Burkill said: “Between 20mm and 40mm of rain could fall, with up to 60mm across western Scotland.”
He added: “The greatest impacts from the winds look to be from southern Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern Wales and northern England, so quite a big patch. We can see change in the gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour, up to 70 in parts.”
Despite the gales, the Met Office said temperatures will be “quite a few degrees above average”, with highs of 13C to 14C.
It comes after south-west England and Wales were hit by gales of 70mph from Storm Atiyah over the weekend.