October 26, 2018 9.38 am This story is over 64 months old

£67m warehouse near Grantham approved

It will also create some 300 jobs

A £67 million cold store is set to be built at Easton, south of Grantham, after getting planning approval by South Kesteven District Council.

The new facility will create around 300 jobs, including warehousing, engineering and apprenticeship opportunities, worth almost £7 million annually to the local economy.

Wider economic benefits including supply chains could amount to a further £16m a year.

Work will begin on site in 2019 and it is expected to take two years to build the store, with capacity for 60,000 pallets at minus 28 degrees centigrade and sited where four warehouses were lost to fire in 2013. It will be finished in three shades of grey to reduce the massing of the building and its landscape effects.

The full application covers an office block demolition, erection of a new 23,648sqm warehouse, plant room; vehicle maintenance unit, fuel island, vehicle wash area, alterations to vehicular access, internal access road, car park extension, and associated landscaping.

The council has moved quickly to facilitate the determination of the application from industrial development specialists iSec in order secure the investment in the site, operated by XPO Logistics.

It will enable XPO Logistics to modernise its existing operations through new technology and automation, better parking arrangements and improved access to prevent vehicles backing up onto Burton Lane – due to be widened.

It will also serve the needs of McCain Foods, a key XPO client which shares the Easton site and has other premises within Peterborough and surrounding areas.

Capital costs of materials, labour and support functions for the main building work and the specialist fit-out is expected to top £67 million and the two-year construction phase is likely to see 230 workers on site.