A FILLING station in Rayleigh will be closed for several months while it undergoes extensive renovation work.

Staff at the Grange Filling Station, in London Road, closed up on Monday after hearing at short notice the works were going ahead.

The garage, its canopy and accompanying shop will be demolished, as will a vacant dwelling to the rear of the site, to make way for an expanded shop, a new canopy and extra parking spaces.

Carol Marks, site manager, has worked there for eight years and welcomed the expansion.

She said: “It’s been in the planning for about five years, but we got the call last Wednesday, saying it was all going to happen and we were closing up.

“We’re all still getting paid though and they hope to have us open again in May.

“We’ve been getting really busy recently, so we needed to expand the shop and the parking spaces will really help, especially with the new homes they’re trying to build around here.”

The garage is owned by Sectorsure Limited and is currently branded as a Harvest Energy station with a Mace store, but Ms Marks thought it could reopen as a BP-branded facility.