The UK's 'largest kiln' has been officially opened in a small part of Lancashire.

David Morris, the MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, visited the new wood drying kiln at Logs Direct on Friday, March 15.

The site is as a result of a £400,000 investment by Logs Direct to keep up with demand in an environmentally friendly way.

Mr Morris said: "Logs Direct are a fantastic family business who employ 40 people locally.

"I am always happy to support local businesses and I was delighted to open the new Kiln in Halton."

Installation of the kiln follows continued growth at the company and allows them to facilitate further expansions which complies with the 'ready to burn' legislation.

The MP was happy to learn about how the regional operations have come to have an international impact.

He added: "I was particular interested to hear about the rise in exports of wood from Halton to places across the globe - they said trade in the USA has really grown with kitchens in America because the people like the flavour local wood from our area gives their food.

"It just shows that we are punching above our weight in Morecambe and Lunesdale, because we are a community that exports internationally."

Stephen Talbot, Sales Director at Logs Direct, explained how the kiln would benefit the business going forward and help it build upon its already established success.

Mr Talbot said: "We are already seeing the benefits of this Glenfarrow bespoke drying kiln which is uniquely, automatically temperature controlled.

"This enables a huge increase in production capacity allowing us to dry another 424cbm per seven days, so fulfilling an ever increasing demand.

"More importantly our customers are absolutely certain that all our logs are up to accredited standards."