PLANS for a development featuring a major international pizza chain restaurant will bring jobs to the Garnock Valley.

ATTIX, a not for profit organisation set up to boost local economic development, has successfully helped to attract the international restaurant chain to Kilbirnie.

Plans have been lodged with North Ayrshire Council to erect a restaurant with takeaway facility and an ATM on the vacant site at Holmhead.

The restaurant/takeaway will initially employ six full-time and eight part-time staff and it is anticipated that more staff will be required.

ATTIX and North Ayrshire Council are both unable to officially confirm at this stage what the restaurant is, but it is understood that it is an international pizza chain.

Long term Kilbirnie resident and former Enterprise Minister, Allan Wilson, is one of the founders of ATTIX.

He said: “The site chosen for the new restaurant at the former Paterson’s Garage in Holmhead, Kilbirnie, has lain derelict since the bus company closed and is a blight on the local landscape.

“This proposed development will create around 25 new jobs and ensure more money circulates in the local economy.

“ATTIX are already working with other large corporations like BT, Scottish Water and RBS, local council officers and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to attract investment to the area and help stimulate economic growth and address the digital divide, counteract financial exclusion and unemployment and a lack of local training and employment opportunities and reverse cuts in local investment and the downward trajectory of the local economy.

“At the moment Kilbirnie and the Garnock Valley are at the back of the queue when discussions are taking place on future investment from public agencies and private corporations and we want to put us at the front.”