A DISTRIBUTION company will find out next week if it will be permitted to expand onto a major Bradford industrial site.

The site on Rook Lane in Dudley Hill is currently occupied by Royal Sanders - which manufactures personal care products. Last year the company announced that it would be ending operations at the site, and transferring business to its Preston site.

The decision would lead to the loss of 160 jobs.

Later in the year Lincoln based distribution company Touch Global announced plans to move to the site once Royal Sanders left, creating 60 jobs.

At a meeting of Bradford Council’’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee tomorrow, members will discuss a planning application that would allow the move to happen.

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Royal Sanders had applied to change the use of the 6,255 square metre factory from a mix of industrial, office and storage use to storage and distribution use.

Members will be advised to approve the application.

The committee will be told that Touch Global intends to employ local people, rather than transfer staff from their existing bases, and that they would look to take on staff that lose their jobs due to Royal Sanders leaving Bradford.

A report going to the committee says: “The National Planning Policy Framework states that the planning system should do everything it can to support sustainable economic growth and therefore significant weight should be placed on the need to support economic growth through the planning system. The proposal will retain a significant amount of employment within the site with 60 jobs being created.”

Members will be told that there had been two objections to the plans, as well as a petition signed by 25 residents of Rook Lane and Melford Street, raising concerns about the plans.

Objectors raise fears over traffic to the site - and worry HGVs and other vehicles may park outside their properties. They have asked that double yellow lines continue from Law Street to number 75 Rook Lane (from numbers 107-75) and for all vehicles leaving the site to turn left towards Rooley Lane.

The Council’s Highways Department say if plans are approved there should be a review of the parking restrictions on the streets around the perimeter of the site and the entrances “in order to stop indiscriminate parking by the HGVs.” This will be in the form of a Traffic Regulation Order and parking permits for the residents.

Officers recommend that one condition of any approval be that the company created purpose-built electric vehicle charging points across 10 parking bays on the site.

The Committee meets in City Hall at 10am on Thursday March 5.