Another shipping container village planned for Northumberland

The application is seeking permission for the siting of upcycled shipping containers to provide retail and leisure facilities with a tented permanent roof covering on the former Laidler’s yard on Double Row in Seaton Delaval.

The grocers, which had a retail shop but also delivered fresh produce across Northumberland and the North East, went into liquidation after 107 years in May, a victim of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, Dan Miller – who is also behind the £20million, 112-container Crate Park in North Tyneside, which was approved last September – wants to create Laidler’s Market Garden, with ‘substantial and wide-ranging opportunities for those wishing to establish new business enterprises, specifically focused on small-scale food operators’.

There would be seven containers in total, with would be clad in green walling, brick and timber to look like a walled garden, while 46 parking spaces would be provided on site.

A planning statement says: ‘We will be offering very flexible terms along with support and guidance available to promote business development, they would have every opportunity to not only survive but thrive in what is currently a challenging economic climate.’

It explains that the applicant has previously created a small business hub at the former Central Motors site in Blyth, with three of the four tenants operating there being from the town.

The statement adds: ‘We intend to have the same ethos at Laidler’s Market Garden, we have already let subject to contract the existing units on site to local people and they are currently under refurbishment.

‘This part of the development will not only create opportunities for the people of the region, but also create jobs in the hardest-hit region of the UK by the current circumstances. We estimate that when fully developed the whole site will employ in the region of 80 people both full and part-time.’

The agent for the proposal is the same as for a bid for a similar venture, to be known as Pod Park Blyth, in the town’s Marketplace, which was lodged in June.

June also so plans submitted for a shipping container development in Bamburgh.

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