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The York Press: Business park planned for former North Yorkshire mine

Date: 16 11 2016

Business park planned for former North Yorkshire mine

A FORMER North Yorkshire mine could be redeveloped into a massive new employment site with hundreds of new jobs.

Plans have been submitted to Selby District Council which could see 95,000 square metres of employment space built on the site of Kellingley Colliery, which closed down in December last year.

The outline planning application has been submitted to the council by Leeds-based Barton Willmore on behalf of regeneration company Harworth Group plc, which promises “hundreds of new jobs could be created” as part of the redevelopment.

Claire Kent, planning director in Barton Willmore’s Leeds office, said: “This is an exciting and significant opportunity to redevelop the site that will replace employment lost when the mine closed late last year and aligns with Selby’s economic growth ambitions.”

Iain Thomson, from the Harworth group, said: “We are highly experienced in regenerating former industrial sites and over the last year we have worked closely with Selby District Council and other key stakeholders to move plans forward. Our overriding priority is to bring good-quality jobs back to the area.”

The 64-hectare site was bought by Harworth in March this year, with an aim of replacing jobs lost when mining ended at the colliery.

The plans have been welcomed by Richard Tice, co-chairman of the Leave Means Leave campaign, who said the potential developments of the Kellingley site would be a positive step following the EU referendum.

He said: “I was delighted to learn that developers are in talks to restore hundreds of good-quality jobs with a new business park on the site of Kellingley Colliery, some time after Brexit.

“Kellingley was just one of many places to suffer hundreds of job losses during the EU years without comment – thanks in part to anti-mine EU policies “.

A decision is expected early next year.

November 16th, The York Press