HOLIDAY Extras, the growing East Kent business, is controversially closing the Sussex offices of the company it bought recently with the loss of 90 jobs.

The holiday add-ons business with a £140 million turnover bought Crawley-based BCP - formerly British Car Parks - from Q-Park for an undisclosed sum and switched the operation to its headquarters in Newingreen, near Hythe.

However, bad news for West Sussex is good news for East Kent where 40 new jobs are being created as a result of the takeover, and the firm says there could be more jobs to come in the New Year.

The Kent company considered keeping the Crawley office open but decided not to proceed after a financial review. The decision provoked anger in West Sussex.

Howard Dove, sales director for Holiday Extras, said: "We understand that this has been a difficult time for the team at BCP, so to recognise everybody for their hard work under these circumstances we have paid the BCP team a 50 per cent salary bonus in October.

"Some staff will be staying on, but those leaving have received a full redundancy package."

The deal boosted the firm’s presence in the airport car parking business. As part of the deal, Holiday Extras will manage Q-Park’s off-airport car parks at Heathrow, Manchester, Gatwick, Newcastle and Glasgow.

It now operates more than 28,000 spaces at nine UK airports and generates three million bookings a year.

Holiday Extras is one of Kent’s biggest operations. It has won numerous trade and consumer awards for best web site and best holiday add-ons and has, for the last three consecutive years, been awarded a top 50 place in The Times ‘Best Companies Guide.’