Caddick to build 544,000 sq ft warehouse in South Ribble

After achieving unanimous approval from the council, the developer can now proceed with its Farington Park industrial project in Leyland.

Outline approval for the scheme was granted in January 2021.

South Ribble Council had deferred the reserved matters application in February over concerns regarding the scale of the plans and potential impact on noise and air pollution.

Caddick Developments then met with members of the community, concerned ward leaders and more, reducing the height of its proposed buildings and adding landscaping.

Caddick has now committed to a 2.5-metre earth bund to the north of the site which will have trees and landscaping and help mitigate noise from the site.

The scheme is now shooting for a BREEAM Excellent rating, whereas before it was only aiming for a Very Good.

Those changes, submitted by planning consultant NJL Consulting, were enough to win the council over, as was evidenced by the approval at the planning committee meeting on Thursday.

Caddick said the scheme would create 600 jobs during construction. It estimates that more than 1,000 jobs will be generated once the site is operational.

Steve Widdowson, head of Caddick for the North West, said: “The scale of new jobs in the area created by the scheme – both during construction and operation – will be a huge benefit to the local economy, whilst addressing the acute requirement for industrial and logistics space in the North West.

“This BREEAM Excellent project will return brownfield land to use, providing jobs and environmental improvements for the area. We look forward to continuing our work with local partners to bring the scheme forward.”

KPP Architects designed the Farington Park project, which in addition to having a large warehouse also includes 506 car parking spaces. Of those 506 car parking spaces, 52 will be for electric vehicle charging and 16 will be designated accessible. There will also be 26 spaces for motorcycles and storage for 60 bicycles.

Urban Green was the landscape architect for the scheme and provided landscape planning, biodiversity net gain, ecology and arboriculture services as well.

Rob Taylor of Cushman & Wakefield and Sam Royle of Knight Frank are the agents appointed to the project.

Looking to learn more about Farington Park? The application’s reference number with South Ribble Council is 07/2021/00966/REM.