Travelodge is to extend its Local Employer Partnership (LEP) commitment with the opening of a new hotel in Chester at the start of August.

The 60-room Chester Central hotel, which will open on 30 July, is part of the LEP scheme the budget hotel chain signed up to last autumn. It is being administered on a site-by-site basis, starting with the new Southwark hotel that opened earlier this month.

Under the LEP, Travelodge will seek to recruit staff for the hotel’s 20-strong workforce from the ranks of Chester’s long-term unemployed via the local Jobcentre Plus.

Travelodge Chester hotel manager Annie McIntyre said: “At Travelodge, we believe in developing our people and offer an excellent training and career advancement programme.”

More information can be found at www.travelodge.co.uk/careers.

At the start of this week the budget hotel chain announced it had bought two properties from Swallow Hotels and exchanged on a further five hotels in a combined deal worth £70m.

Graduates and unemployed gain from new Southwark Travelodge >>

Roast restaurant pledges job to long-term unemployed >>

Marriott signs deal with JobCentre Plus >>

By Chris Druce

E-mail your comments to Chris Druce here.