ONE of Teesdale’s biggest employers has unveiled plans to revamp its operation in Evenwood.
Evenwood-based CA Group has submitted proposals to replace its manufacturing plant on Copeland Lane with a three-storey factory with a rejigged entrance.
The roofing and cladding firm will create a new facility to the east of their existing plant with 4.3 acres of floorspace if plans are given the green light.
Planning statements also revealed how a new “bellmouth junction” with two approach lanes and a manned gatehouse would replace the existing access to the factory.
This would see wagons pushed back from the road and aims to ease congestion near Copeland Row.
The design and access statement added: “This will enable security to deal with incoming and outgoing HGVs much more efficiently and queuing of HGVs on Copeland Lane will be removed providing further safety benefits to the public highway.”
CA Group has operated in Evenwood since 1983 and employs 195 people on the site in the village – making it one of the biggest job providers in Teesdale.
Much of the existing operations take place in the 2.75 factory space and several adjoining office buildings.
If approved, the new factory would not seek to expand the business’s operation but aims to create “operational efficiencies” at the plant.
The firm pointed to “potential employment benefits” once any revamp was completed but it added that any increase in jobs will be “modest” and would not exceed the numbers employed on-site during times of peak production. The firm’s planning statement added: “As such, no increase in deliveries in or out is intended to be generated over and above those that result from the current variations in workload.”
