Nuneaton engineering firm MIRA opens £50m site

The firm said 188 jobs have been created since 2010

The first part of a technology park in Warwickshire and Leicestershire due to create 2,000 jobs has been opened.

Nuneaton-based MIRA announced plans to develop areas of its 750 acre engineering, research and testing facility in 2010.

The £6m control centre is the first section of the £50m site to open. Part of it sits in Hinckley.

The firm said 188 jobs have been created since 2010 and 145 jobs are due to be created in 2013.

It is hoped the number of jobs created will reach 2,000 by 2020.

Business Secretary Vince Cable, who opened the control centre, said: "It has the potential to become Europe's largest independent transport research and development cluster.

"Enterprise Zone status has helped MIRA to attract high profile names in industry to use the Technology Park as an engineering base."

International firms including Bosch Engineering, Lockheed Martin, Ashok Leyland, Norgren and Triumph Motorcycles are to be based at the control centre on the site, a spokesman said.

A planning application for the second development, a four storey office building, has been approved.