SPECIALIST car makers Allied Vehicles are to create 60 jobs.

Most will be on assembly work at Allied's Possilpark plant in Glasgow, where there are already 300 staff.

The firm are introducing a night shift to cope with increasing orders for their wheelchair-accessible cars, taxis and minibuses.

Allied's good news comes as Coventry rivals London Taxis International announced plans to move production of their TX taxi to China.

Allied's taxi sales have benefited significantly from the decision by Edinburgh's council in June to end LTI's monopoly on supplying taxis.

The council now also license the E7 - a wheelchair-accessible taxi manufactured jointly by Allied and Peugeot.

A further boost for Allied has come with soaring sales of their wheelchair-accessible cars and minibuses, including the popular Fiat Freedom and Renault Autograph.

Brothers Gerry and Michael Facenna set up Allied 10 years ago as a motor dealership.

With their taxi production, major car building has returned to Scotland for the first time since the Talbot factory at Linwood, Renfrewshire, closed in 1981.

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