Developers warn time running out for £40m plan

by Mike Last - 02/04/2010

"HUNDREDS of jobs and the chance to attract new firms to Lynn's Hardwick Industrial Estate will be at stake when borough planners consider £40m-plus plans for a Sainsbury's superstore in June."

Developers' concerns that planning delays were placing the scheme in jeopardy were exclusively revealed in the Lynn News on March 19.

On Tuesday, representatives from Sainsbury's, Pinguin Foods UK and Morston Assets met with West Norfolk Council planning officers to discuss the plan and try to speed up a decision.

Afterwards it was revealed that both Sainsbury's and Tesco's applications would be considered at a special meeting of the development control board on June 16. Morston Assets managing director James Bunn described it as "a positive meeting with the planning officers".

Tesco plans to extend its operations in Hardwick Road to include a superstore on the site of the former Campbell's Foods factory, creating at least 300 more jobs.

Frozen vegetable firm Pinguin is giving up about 12 acres of its 44-acre site on the Hardwick Industrial Estate to accommodate Sainsbury's superstore nearest the Hardwick roundabout.

More than 300 full and part-time jobs would be created at the 70,000sq ft superstore, which would include an in-store bakery, delicatessen, restaurant and a petrol station.

The present slip road from Scania Way to the A149 would disappear under the plan. A new roundabout would be built on Queen Elizabeth Way, north of Hardwick roundabout, with a new 781-metre link road to Scania Way - and Morston Assets would foot the £7.5m bill.

This link road would open up 72 acres of land enabling further expansion of the industrial estate and the new jobs that would bring, the developers claim.

Mr Bunn said the link road and roundabout would realise the long-term ambitions of the council, which for the past 20 years has been unable to bring about the expansion of the estate due to lack of public sector funding.

Sainsbury's development would also safeguard 343 full and part-time and 200 seasonal jobs at Pinguin. Pinguin UK managing director Peter Denolf said it was "a unique opportunity to cement the future of this site and to consolidate our UK activity here in Lynn".

Stuart Robinson, Pinguin's marketing and innovations manager, said the initial £7m investment it would get from Morston Assets - its landlord - would enable it to have a new cold store, offices and effluent plant and the latest machinery.

He said the investment could see the Lynn site, its UK headquarters, handling 75 per cent instead of half its 600,000-tonne annual UK production, and all instead of two-thirds of its UK packing operation.

But he pointed out: "If we don't have this investment, it's going to make it tricky for us to continue on this site."

Planning delays have already led to Pinguin choosing to build a new long-term storage and distribution depot at Wisbech instead of Lynn.

More Details: http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/Developers-warn-time-running-out.6198992.jp