Recruitment underway to fill 120 vacancies at £20 million service station off A1M near Peterborough

Recruitment is underway to find 60 staff to work at a new £20 million service station being built off the A1M at Sawtry.

Service station operator Moto Hospitality has teamed up with Peterborough Jobcentre in a bid to recruit the new staff for the service station, which is expected to open in April.

More than 120 people are expected to be employed at the venue, which will feature retailers such as WH Smith, M&S Simply Food and fast food and beverage outlets Burger King, Costa Coffee, Greggs and Pret A Manger.

Stephen Lankester, district operations leader for East Anglia Jobcentre Plus, said that it was understood that at least 20 members of staff had already been hired by Moto.

He said: “Our staff are carrying out sifts of applicants’ CVs to look for people with some retail or customer service experience and then directing them to Moto, which has upcoming interviews.

"Four to six weeks of training are being provided.”

Moto Hospitality says the development will bring a major improvement to an area that has been run down.

The works will involve the demolition of an existing Lodge, bungalow and a now closed adult shop and all other associated structures and buildings and will include the removal of old underground fuel tanks associated with a previous garage.

It states: “This proposal looks to provide a modern and compact purpose designed amenity building to the northern end of the site, with car and coach parking closely associated with this new facility, and further HGV parking and a new fuel filling station towards the Southern end of the site.”

The plans for the development were submitted to Huntingdonshire District Council in 2019 and approved in May 2021.

Under the terms of the planning approval the company has to pay a Community Infrastructure Levy of £185,809 by June 7 this year.