New lease of life for former smelter site brings jobs boost

An aerial view of the former Alcan site.

The outline application by the Harworth Group, for the 121,000 sq m Lynefield Park, which would provide a ‘flexible mix of employment floorspace’, was unanimously approved at Tuesday’s meeting of Northumberland County Council’s strategic planning committee.

The term employment park is being used to cover a variety of possible uses on the site, from warehousing and storage to industrial.

Planning officer Geoff Horsman told the meeting that the county is ‘potentially looking at hundreds of new jobs’ on a site that ‘has been in employment use certainly since the early 1970s’.

Members later heard, from the applicant’s agent, that the estimated jobs which would be created on the site is 650 full-time equivalent, on top of work during the 15-year construction period.

“Harworth sees this as a flagship scheme for the area,” he added.

Coun Trevor Thorne said: “This is very much a good news story following the closure of Alcan.”

Referring to the fact that planning is about not just housing, but job creation, he added: “This will go a long way to supporting that aspiration.”

“It’s hard to see anything against this,” Coun Gordon Castle said. “We must manage public expectations, it’s not going to happen next week, but it’s a very good solution for the medium term.”

Coun Barry Flux added: “This is very much an application which shows that this county is open for business. In other places, you see employment land being lost for housing.”

The scheme sparked just two objections, while Newbiggin-By-The Sea Town Council ‘welcomes the development of this major site for employment creation’. Lynemouth Parish Council chose not to respond.

The few outstanding issues relating to the likes of flooding/drainage and off-site highway works at the Ashwood roundabout had been resolved by the meeting.

As it is in outline, all other matters – such as landscaping, layout, appearance and scale – will be determined at a later date.