A HUDDERSFIELD factory owner will find out next week if he has won planning permission for a major re-organisation.
Simon Broadbent, managing director of Thomas Broadbent and Sons, has asked Kirklees Council to allow him to expand one part of his site, allowing him to sell off the other part to a supermarket chain.
The Broadbent factory – which manufactures centrifuges for the sugar and chemical industries – currently straddles both sides of Queen Street South, just off the ring road.
Mr Broadbent wants to consolidate all his factory on the eastern side of Queen Street South, next to the Examiner building.
The western side of Broadbent’s would then be sold to Asda, allowing the retail giant to open a supermarket on the ring road – subject to planning permission.
Asda claims the £40m store would create 450 jobs.
The Broadbent proposal goes in front of the council’s Huddersfield Planning Sub-committee on Thursday. Mr Broadbent explained yesterday why the re-organisation was necessary.
He said: “At the moment we’re in the strange position where we only use half the buildings on our main site. It’s becoming very expensive to keep and maintain all the buildings and to pay such massive rates.
“If this goes ahead I expect to save 50% on rates and 25% on energy costs.”
Broadbent’s currently has five manufacturing bays on its main site next to Chapel Hill. The smaller eastern site has three manufacturing bays, disused offices and a foundry.
The company has asked Kirklees for permission to extend the foundry, build new offices and a fourth manufacturing bay at the eastern side.
Mr Broadbent said the proposed smaller factory could easily house all 130 workers. He said: “There’s room on that site for 200 staff.”
Council planning officers have recommended that the sub-committee approves the proposal, despite the fact that 21 people have written to Kirklees to object.
Their concerns include the prospect of noise from the factory 24-hours-a-day, light pollution, the impact on wildlife and bats and contamination when old buildings are demolished.
But Mr Broadbent said: “We wouldn’t have deliveries at night and we wouldn’t be making any more noise than we do at the moment.”
The reorganisation of Broadbent’s has been in the pipeline for the past five years, long before the recession which hit the company hard.
Mr Broadbent said: “We had record sales in 2005 and 2006 but the capital equipment market disintegrated during the recession, forcing us down from 260 workers to about 130.
“It could be in to 2011/12 before things start picking up.”
