A FAST-track building programme will see Redditch's new Holiday Inn Express in Hewell Road constructed in just 35 weeks.

Building will start on the 100-bedroom hotel after it was agreed Wilmott Dixon Construction would carry out the work, in a £4.6 million contract signed on Thursday.

The Coleshill-based company is working with architects JSA and using the latest technology such as factory assembled bathroom pods to achieve the build time.

It is the first time Wilmott will have built a Holiday Inn Express although one of their most recent contracts, worth £11 million, was to build two schools in Sandwell.

Willmott's managing director at Coleshill, Peter Owen said, "We are delighted Meridian Leisure Hotels has chosen us as the company to deliver this new Express by Holiday Inn.

"The fast-track programme is ideally suited to our skills, which are tailored to building complex schemes within a short time frame using modern methods of construction such as bathroom pods."

Wilmott has also recently built a sports hall at a school in Coventry.