After years of speculation pub chain JD Wetherspoon has confirmed it is in talks to come to Helston.

The company has made no secret of the fact that Helston is on its wish list of towns to open in - and now the Packet can reveal that it has found a suitable location.

It is currently in negotiations with the owner of the site, which, if successful in the coming weeks, would see a typical JD Wetherspoon pub open offering both a bar and food.

This would bring with it between 45 and 50 jobs and an investment of around £1.5 million into the town.

Spokesman Eddie Gershon told the Packet on Monday: “We are in early negotiations on the purchase of that site.

“We have been looking at Helston for a good while, but nothing has ever come to fruition.

“We now are further along the road to having a pub there, as much as we have found a site and are in negotiations.”

As talks are currently ongoing, the company is reluctant to comment on the exact location.

However, there is strong speculation in the town that a store in Coinagehall Street is being lined up for the pub chain to take over.

It is known that the pub chain needs sites of a certain size to move into - ones of the reasons why other attempts to date have proved unsuccessful.

Now, however, the company believes it has found a site that is suitable in both size and location.

There are already JD Wetherspoon pubs in many of the surrounding towns, including Falmouth, Truro and Penzance, which are generally popular for their lower cost alcohol and food.

While the company refers to them as pubs, the branches all offer similar menus, with Mr Gershon describing meals as “a massive part of what we do.”

He stressed that should an agreement be reached over the site, the opening of a Wetherspoon pub would still be subject to planning permission.

He added that while the food and drink offering was similar in its chain, the design of the buildings different greatly depending on the location.

“The design is always different,” he said. “But from our point of view we have enjoyed great success in Cornwall. There's a number of towns we're not represented in but we'd like to be.”