A budget national chain has confirmed further details of its new hotel on a high-profile town centre site, due to open later this year.

Travelodge has confirmed it will be opening a 62-room hotel on the Riverside Development in Bridge Street, Thetford, which is currently in development by Breckland Bridge Ltd.

The £3.1m scheme, spearheaded by Breckland Council and the Land Group Ltd, will also see a cinema, cafe and restaurants opening in December.

A spokesman for Travelodge said the hotel will create 15 new jobs.

He claimed it will also generate £1.2m for the local economy each year.

The Thetford site is part of a £140m investment being made by Travelodge nationwide, including 19 new hotels.

Peter Gowers, Travelodge Chief Executive, said: “The value hotel market continues to go from strength to strength, boosted by ever more cost-conscious businesses and the growth in independent leisure travel.

“To meet the growing demand Travelodge is continuing to invest in upgrading and expanding our network.

“These 19 new hotels, many with our new bar café restaurants, mark another important step in our drive to deliver greater quality for our customers.

“Our recently completed £100 million hotel modernisation programme has raised quality levels and led to strong growth from business customers to complement our traditional strength in leisure travel.

“We now see opportunity for hotels in 250 further locations across the UK and with early positive development momentum at the start of 2016, we are well positioned to deliver further strong growth in the years ahead.”

The Light chain will run the Riverside Development’s three-screen cinema.

Breckland Council has recently confirmed negotiations for the cafe and restaurant outlets at the site are currently ongoing, with several national brands interested.

Work on the site started in June 2015.

A steel frame was recently erected, with Breckland Bridge Ltd reporting that the project is on course.

A live webcam stream is showing the progress of the scheme.

What do you think of the Riverside Development project? Let us know by emailing andrew.fitchett@archant.co.uk