A SPECIAL meeting has been called to discuss a Middleton-in-Teesdale firm’s expansion plans.
The village’s largest employer, Technimark, wants planning permission to extend its factory into a neighbouring field along Gas Lane.
The company says the expansion will create new jobs and will increase its revenue by about 50 per cent over the next four years.
However, if denied permission, the firm may have to move out of the village.
Middleton-in-Teesdale and Newbiggin Parish Council has called the special meeting on Monday, February 8, to discuss the application. In the application Technimark’s managing director Stephen Shaw said a field adjoining the plant had been bought specifically for the expansion which includes constructing new warehouse and storage buildings. More parking also forms part of the plans.
Mr Shaw said: “Technimark is an established business at the heart of the local community. The expansion will ensure it can cater for predicted future demand and its growth will result in additional employment opportunities for local people.”
The company produces plastic injection moulded components for the medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries and has been based in the village for the past 30 years. It currently employs 90 people and is predicted to take on an additional 33 employees if the plans are approved.
The managing director warned, however, that the firm might leave the village if the development is not approved. He said: “It should be noted that if Technimark were unable to expand the location then a new facility would be required – it is deemed financially inefficient to operate two small sites so the new location would likely house all of the Technimark business.
“Given the lack of suitable sized industrial units within a 30-mile radius, it is likely that any new facility would be outside of the expected travel distance for 60 to 70 per cent of the current workforce.”
However, people who have homes that back onto the field say the firm is using the possibility of pulling out of the village as a threat to get the plans passed.
Alan Matthews, whose family has owned one of the old lead miner cottages overlooking the field for more than 100 years, said the original industrial estate catered for single storey buildings and it had developed beyond what was initially intended. He said: “What we are going to end up with is being backed onto a noise element and being overshadowed by enormous buildings. We are objecting to the grandiosity of this scheme on what was a small cottage industry estate.
“I am concerned about someone putting up a 6m by 40m green wall at the bottom of my garden.”
He was further worried about the danger caused by an increase in traffic past the village’s primary school.
Mr Matthews complained that many residents had not been properly informed about the development, and unless they have internet access they cannot access plans or additional information about it because of the closure of the nearest library.
Nor had many of them the means to join the parish council’s online meeting to discuss the issue, he said.
People who want to join the meeting can visit middleton
andnewbigginparishcouncil.
org.
