Major warehouse project approved south of Grantham

A £67.1M major warehouse project at Easton, south of Grantham, has won conditional approval from South Kesteven District Council.

The project on the former Christian Salveson site on Burton Lane promises to create 300 jobs, plus a further 230 construction jobs during the two years it will be built.

However, the project was opposed by the nearby Easton Walled Gardens, who feared the impact the new 23,648M2 warehouse might have on its business, noting the new building would be some 21M taller than existing storage facilities on the site, which might deter custom to the gardens.

SKDC planning chiefs accepted the size of the scheme, its visual impact and the extra traffic would affect the gardens, but there were no ‘over-riding factors’ to justify refusal. They said this could be offset by improving signage to the attraction, a measure they imposed as a condition of approval.

The site of the planned warehouse is currently a vacant area of hardstanding and existing storage facility, which was used as a cold store until it was destroyed by fire in 2013.

The 4ha brownfield site forms part of the existing 10.7ha XPO Logistics site, which employs 250, with 300 others further employed at nearby McCain Foods, which uses some of the XPO storage space.

Applicants, property managers iSec, warned without the new plant “there is a strong chance XPO would relocate outside the area and thus the considerable economic benefits (as well as much needed employment) would be lost.”