Long standing plans for a £50million warehousing development which could have created up to 450 new jobs in Sudbury have been scrapped, the EADT can reveal.
Market support firm Prolog, one of the town’s major employers, has confirmed that it is considering relocating its warehousing operation to the east Midlands.
Managing director Neil Daniells said around 30 staff at the company’s premises in Church Field Road, Chilton were currently being consulted about redundancies but that Prolog would retain its call centre at Sulby House in the town’s North Street, which has around 100 staff.
The company had intended to build two huge warehouses, offices and a service yard on land off Church Field Road and in February 2014, after a three-year battle, it finally gained permission to go ahead with its expansion plans.
But objectors, including Lady Hart of Grade II listed Chilton Hall, launched a challenge against the scheme in the High Court via a judicial review, which saw the application quashed on a technicality.
An amended proposal was expected to return to Babergh’s planning committee in the near future.
But last night Mr Daniells told this newspaper that Prolog was no longer thinking of expanding in Sudbury because the planning application “became too prohibitive”.
He said: “Prolog is consulting about relocating its warehouse operations and the reason for that is that the (current) building is just beyond economical repair and the lease expires in 2017.
“We are retaining our contact centre operation at Sulby House with just over 100 staff and Prolog is absolutely committed to keeping that in Sudbury.”
South Suffolk MP James Cartlidge said he was disappointed to hear that Sudbury could miss out on so many potential new jobs. “It is disappointing news whenever companies make people redundant, particularly if they shelve plans that would have led to more jobs in the future,” he added.
“The key point is that this is a reminder to everyone involved in the Babergh and Sudbury areas that we must never be complacent about our local economy.”
Simon Barrett, Babergh’s portfolio holder for growth and the local economy, has long expressed concerns that the planning application was taking “too long” and that Prolog could pull out of Sudbury. He said it was a “great shame” to lose more than 400 new job opportunities.
He added: “It’s always a great pity when any employer is thinking about leaving the area because most of the investment we get is from existing companies expanding and it’s difficult to get people to come in from other areas because we don’t seem to make it easy for them.
“In this case it is not the district council that has made it difficult because we have a policy that supports growth and the council was aware that we wanted to approve this.
“However at every stage we were being held up by legal threats.
“It’s a huge shame that the company has given up on its expansion plans because of opposition from a very small minority of local people.”
Yesterday, Lady Hart was not available to comment on Prolog’s decision to abandon its expansion plans. Chilton Parish Council which raised concerns about the scheme also declined to comment.
Published by the EADT.