HUNDREDS more jobs are to be created at Crewe's luxury car firm following a multi-million pound investment into the plant.

Having taken on a thousand workers in the past three years, Bentley bosses have now pledged to offer an extra 350 posts to be filled by local people.

When it purchased the company in 1998, Volkswagen pledged to invest £500m in the firm.

So far some £216m has been sunk into manufacturing the new Continental GT, with £154m spent with suppliers and £63m lavished on the Crewe plant.

The funding represents the largest single investment made at the factory since it was built as an aero engine firm in 1938.

The 18-month programme has involved over 400 contractors and has changes to the main production line, new roadways, a lorry park and two new logistics centres to cope with a five-fold rise in deliveries to the site.

Almost every manufacturing area of the Crewe site has either been newly built or refurbished.

Changes to the buildings and site have cost £13m; the new assembly line and leather shop £18m and investment into the engine assembly £10m.

The expansion of the wood shop and new equipment such as laser-cutters and automated lacquer spraying chambers cost £6m, with the new quality centre and logistics areas accounting for the remaining £16m.

The improvements have slashed production times. Where the classic Arnage requires some 450 man-hours to build the GT requires 150.

A spokesman said: "It is still a hand-crafted and highly labour-intensive car: to put it in context, a typical family hatchback can be produced in just 20 hours."

From Pym's Lane the completed car is taken to a new 500m surface test track at the rear of the Crewe plant, which can simulate seven different road conditions.