Anxious companies on a Burnham-On-Sea industrial estate will learn today (Tuesday March 13th) whether controversial plans to demolish two huge industrial units are to be given the go-ahead.
Burnham-On-Sea.com exclusively reported last week that up to fourteen firms and the jobs of 30 people are threatened by the plans to demolish two huge industrial units, according to businesses at the site.
Sedgemoor planners will today assess whether the buildings at Westmans Trading Estate in Love Lane can be demolished – leaving scores of businesses with no home – so that they can be replaced with more modern buildings.
Firms who are based at the site say they have not been fully consulted about the plans and claim their livelihoods are under threat because plans to re-locate them during any reconstruction works have not been thought through.
Nick Prout of Burnham Marine, pictured above, is one of several businessesmen based at the site who are anxiously waiting for the verdict.
“We all are very worried about the implications of this decision, which could mean up to 14 firms are put out of the business and dozens of staff laid off,” he said.
Planners have received one letter of objection, plus four ‘letters of concern’. There are also fears among some local people about the possible release of asbestos dust when the aging buildings are demolished.
The applicant, Moorland Sanitary Steam Laundry Ltd, says it wants to remove the run down buildings at the front and middle of the site and replace them with “new, modern and more attractive units.”
It says the plans are in the best interests of firms at the site and the town as a whole, and that it envisages existing companies may be moved to another new industrial unit – which was granted planning permission in January – at the rear of the site during the works, although worried workers are questionining whether they can all move in to the one industrial unit and continue to run their businesses.
