THE new Morrisons distribution centre in north-east Bridgwater has already created jobs and has started to supply stores just one year after the mammoth project started.

Visible from the M5, the striking green building will provide around 1,200 jobs - including 750 for local people - and send goods for 65 stores in the South-West of England and Wales when it becomes fully operational in the new year.

Neal Austin, group logistics and supply chain director for Morrisons, said: “We are excited by the Bridgwater distribution centre development and believe it will make a big difference to our customers in the South-West and Wales.”

On Friday, the Mercury was given a preview of the warehouses, which are stretched across a mile of land between the motorway and Dunball.

Work on the 767,500 square foot distribution centre took place over the past 11 months, beginning in November of last year and finishing earlier this month.

Taking up land the size off 11 football pitches are an ambient warehouse for goods stored at room temperature, a chilled room, a -12degrees freezer section and a resource and recovery unit for recycling.

The site also has its own vehicle maintenance unit for around 100 tractor units and 220 trailers which will be used to transport goods from Haverford West in Wales to Penzance, each tractor covering around 300,000 miles a year.

Service from the distribution centre has already started and will slowly be scaled up over the next few months, with the intention to be fully operational by spring of next year.

Morrisons has worked with Sedgemoor District Council and Bridgwater College as it looks locally to fill around 750 of the positions at the centre.

More than 300 job offers have been made to local people, including some who worked at the recently-closed Somerfield depot.