PLANS for a huge million square foot warehouse opposite the designer village development at Scotch Corner have come under fire as an ‘enormous carbuncle’ which will provide only a few low paid jobs.
Developers who are building the new shopping complex and garden centre just off the A1 near Richmond have put in a scoping bid to Richmondshire District council to gauge planners' reactions to the possibility of the warehouse.
They say the distribution floorspace and associated infrastructure would be on land south of the A6108 Barracks Bank at Scotch Corner.
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The proposed development would be a single warehouse unit with office space, new access arrangements, parking and landscaping, and be on a site covering an area equivalent to around 17 football pitches.
Richmondshire District councillor Leslie Rowe who represents Catterick and Brompton-on-Swale as a Green Party and Independent member told The Northern Echo: “Clearly this is yet another enormous carbuncle depriving our rural community of yet more prime arable land.
"What is clear is that it is intended as a warehouse not a manufacturing site, so will have minimal impact on local employment, at best providing a few low paid jobs.
“Richmondshire and the country as a whole does not need another large warehouse full of imported disposable goods.
"As the Russian aggression in Ukraine has shown, we, as a society needs to relearn self-sufficiency.
"To use our dwindling supply of land to grow the food we eat, not grow the wealth of multinational corporations.”
It is understood that the dimensions on planning documents exceed the dimensions for some of the biggest projects in the region, including a number of Amazon warehouses.
There has been speculation locally that if the scheme is agreed it would be used by distribution and technology giant Amazon which already has three sites, known as fulfilment centres, operating in the North East at Darlington, Durham and Gateshead and another one being built at Wynyard near the A19.
Amazon has been contacted to comment but did not respond.
On behalf of Scotch Corner Richmond LLP, Q and A Planning submitted the request for a scoping opinion to Richmondshire council with a rough outline of the scheme.
They say: “At this stage, it is envisaged the building will have a floor space of c. 100m²,(one million square feet) accommodate up to 130 docking bays for the unloading and loading of goods, and 635 parking spaces for employee parking.
"It is envisaged the building itself will be of steel frame construction with metal sheet cladding.
"The scale of the building is yet to be defined; the height of the building will be in the region of 21 metres to the ridge. A new means of access is to be created into the site.”
Scotch Corner Richmond LLP, and Q and A Planning did not respond to requests to comment.
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