Hattersley land sale paves way for £10m science park

Tameside Council is set to sign off the £400,000 sale of two plots at Hattersley Industrial Estate to engineering firm RSK Group, which is planning to invest £10m in a science & technology park.

Both plots are vacant and the sale will allow RSK to deliver a 50,000 sq ft employment scheme, which secured planning permission earlier this month.

The development will allow Envirolab, part of the RSK Group, to relocate from the Sand Pitts Industrial Estate in a move which is expected to create 220 new jobs over five years. The new-build scheme will include a bespoke 29,000 sq ft laboratory building on one of the plots, along with a series of light industrial and storage units.

Tameside Council, which owns the land, is due to sign off the sale when its executive board meets later this week. The council has owned the land since the 1980s when it purchased the plots from the Greater Manchester Development Corporation for £287,000.

The two plots, which also sit near existing residential development, are both designated for employment use under the area’s Local Plan.

Covering three acres, these sit off Stockport Road, and have been advertised for sale by consultant WT Gunson; the smaller Plot A was marketed at £200,000, while Plot B, covering nearly two acres, was marketed at £300,000. Both have been under offer for a combined £400,000 for around two years.

Tameside’s executive is expected to sign off the sale on 26 June.