2,000 jobs on the way as warehouse plans approved

Wakefield Council’s planning and highways committee approved an application from developer Caddick Construction to build the new facility on land just off junction 33 of the M62 at a meeting today.

As part of the plans Normanton’s TK Maxx warehouse will close and the company will move its 461 staff employed there to the new Cross Point Wakefield development, which will be built on land just off Grovehall Lane.

Julie Greenfield, council planning officer, told the meeting the Normanton facility, on California Drive will close in 2017.

Speaking after the meeting Coun Denise Jeffery, Wakefield Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said: “I am absolutely thrilled that these plans have been approved.

“It’s also really important that staff at the Normanton warehouse have kept their jobs as part of it because the main priority is keeping jobs in our district.

“TK Maxx could have moved out of the district if these plans wouldn’t have been approved and what we need more than anything at the moment is jobs and investment in our district.”

The warehouse is expected to be built by 2017 and as part of the scheme 200 jobs will be created per year from then until 2023.

Matthew Shepherd, on behalf of the developer, told the meeting the scheme would create around 2,000 jobs - 1,440 of which will be new to the area.

Myles Hartley, managing director of Caddick Construction, said: “Cross Point Wakefield is an exciting development which will deliver huge investment and employment opportunities to the area.”

The second warehouse on the site was given outline planning permission at the meeting.