Hyndburn Council has approved a planning application to convert a former storage warehouse at Petre Road in Clayton Business Park, Clayton-le-Moors, into a commercial bakery for Clayton Park Bakery, part of James Hall & Co Ltd.
The scheme will transform the existing 4,974sqm warehouse, previously used for storage, distribution and offices, into a food production facility operating alongside the nearby Clayton Park Bakery business.
Expansion of an established East Lancashire business
The expansion is the latest step in the business's growth since it began in 1995 producing pies for a family market stall. Clayton Park Bakery now supplies supermarkets across the country and a number of football clubs.
Council planners concluded the proposal represented an appropriate use for an existing employment building and would support the continued growth of an established East Lancashire business. Their report states: "The proposed change of use to this existing building on this established business park would be linked to the existing established bakery on the opposite side of the road to the site and is an appropriate use."
Facility details and employment
The new bakery facility will contain four bread production lines alongside warehouse, dispatch, engineering and welfare facilities. Plans also include flour silos, loading docks, and ventilation equipment.
The renovation will see around 900 roof-mounted solar panels installed to help with the bakery's energy intensive production lines. Planning documents state the bakery will manufacture "morning goods and bread products", with production processes including ingredient storage, proving, baking, cooling, slicing and packaging. The application says the facility will employ around 60 full-time equivalent members of staff.
Planning considerations and conditions
Because homes back on to the northern edge of the site, the applicant submitted an odour assessment examining the effect of bread production on nearby residents. Planning officers concluded baking smells would be adequately controlled through the proposed ventilation and extraction systems and would have a negligible impact on neighbouring homes.
Highways officers accepted the site's parking arrangements, despite there being 46 parking spaces for a workforce of around 60 employees, noting that not all workers would travel by car and that parking restrictions already exist on nearby roads.
Permission was granted subject to conditions, including the installation of six swift nesting boxes, provision of a covered cycle store and compliance with approved odour mitigation measures.
History of Clayton Park Bakery
The site is located within Clayton Business Park, one of Hyndburn's main employment areas near Junction 7 of the M65, home to a range of industrial, office and commercial businesses.
Clayton Park Bakery has operated in Clayton-le-Moors since 1995, founded by Barry Thomas and Carolyn Thomas. Starting from a small unit producing pies and sausage rolls for the family's Blackburn market stall business, the company expanded repeatedly within the business park as demand grew.
The bakery has supplied matchday food products to a number of football clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Burnley FC, Preston North End, Everton FC, Liverpool FC, Rochdale FC and Oldham Athletic. Today the business forms part of James Hall & Co, the Lancashire-based company that supplies hundreds of SPAR stores across the north of England and owns several food manufacturing businesses.
