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Pavers boss hits out after £19 million expansion plan is thrown out

Pavers

Shoe firm boss hits out as £19 million expansion and 130 jobs loss as plans rejected

Pavers' boss has revealed his disappointment after the company's £19 million warehouse expansion in York that would have created 130 new jobs was thrown out.

Pavers' joint managing director Stuart Paver stated the company "desperately needed" the expansion as well as a separate extension for new office space.

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According to Paver, which is a shoemaker, the expansion would have cost £19 million and created 130 jobs in the city.

Council planners rejected the warehouse extension at the Northminster Business Park in Upper Poppleton on the grounds it would encroach on green belt land.

Pavers' retail portfolio has grown to more than 180 stores in the last three years, with online sales increasing by 700 percent.

The company currently uses off-site warehousing, and storage needs are expected to double over the next five years.

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Paver said: “As a York-based family business we are proud of our association with York and how we’ve managed to grow from a £200 loan my mother took out in the 1970s to the company we are today, but we need to keep growing.”

Paver stated that the company currently sells five million pairs of shoes a year, but the extension would allow them to sell 16-18 million.

He said: “We really want to continue to build our business and relationships within York. We don’t want to become one of the long lists of successful companies that have had to find another home.”

Laurence Beardmore, President of the York Chamber of Commerce, told The York Press: “With the economy in such a perilous position, one really has to question the logic of blocking a business from creating jobs and providing additional revenue for the local council.

“If York is to have the reputation of a city that welcomes commerce and is focused on economic growth then decisions such as this need to stop.

“Councillors need to think of their constituents. Preventing businesses from expanding sets a dangerous precedent and creates the risk of successful, thriving companies either deciding against investing or moving out altogether.”

Source: The Business Desk

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