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Staffordshire industrial estate expansion in line to create 500 jobs

An industrial estate near Stafford will be extended so new offices, storage units and warehouses can be built helping to create almost 500 jobs, new plans reveal.

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The 16-acre extension to Hixon Airfield Industrial Estate would allow for new businesses to move onto the site.

Applicant Roly Tonge, former director at Stafford Rangers Football Club, says if approved the scheme will mean the creation of 464 new jobs.

Plans have been submitted to Stafford Borough Council.

The site opened as an airfield in 1942 and was used as a training facility for RAF Bomber Command. It closed in 1957. Work began to turn it into an industrial estate in the 1970s.

In plans to the council from Mr Tonge he says: "The proposed use is for an anticipated mixture comprising 15 per cent office/light industrial, 35 per cent general industrial and 50 per cent storage and distribution.

"It is probable that this land will be development in phases over a period of time."

The application is outline only and the details of design or businesses interested in moving onto the site off New Road are not yet known.

The borough council's deputy leader Mike Smith today welcomed the plans.

He said: "This is positive news for Stafford. Anything that brings jobs is a good thing."

Mr Tonge retired from his post as a director of Stafford Rangers earlier this year after 33 years on the board. He took up his role in September 1981.

The 90-year-old has been an active local businessman, politician, farmer and charity worker and he helped redevelop Hixon Airfield into an industrial estate.

Current businesses on the site include aircraft parts supplier Air & Ground Aviation and adhesive firm EnviroStik.

If approved, it will be the latest big scheme in Stafford. Beacon Business Park in the town has been recently extended, with another 50 acres being added.

A new Marston's pub is the first business to be named as moving onto the extra land at the park off the A518 Weston Road.

A supermarket and four smaller shops will also be built in the near future.

Between next year and 2018, around 1,200 army servicemen and their families are expected to move from their current base in Germany into the proposed MoD garrison in Stafford.

As part of the transfer, 2,600 homes are planned or are already under construction.

The industrial estate in Hixon falls under the Local Plan in Stafford, adopted in June this year, which is where new developments such as housing, shops and businesses can be built. A decision on the plans, which have been recommended for approval, will be made later today.

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