Factory bag site for 120 homes

MORE than a hundred new homes could be built on the site of a Portishead factory in a town where 'massive housing development' has already taken place.Bosses at paper bag manufacturer A P Burt, in Harbour Road, will soon be lodging a planning application with North Somerset Council. Detailed plans have yet to be drawn up, but the company is expecting to seek permission to build around 120 homes on its 10-acre site.The firm has been based in the town since the 1930s, currently employs 70 people, and managing director James Nicholls says the housing development is crucial to safeguard their jobs. But Cllr John H Clark is concerned about the demands the extra homes would make on the town's infrastructure. James Nicholls, A P Burt's managing director, said: "We're in old buildings which make it very difficult for us to meet the stringent hygiene standards which apply nowadays. "Under our current set-up, we can't continue indefinitely to supply the supermarkets we supply at the moment."Our proposals are all about safeguarding the jobs we have and potentially growing the business."If we don't get planning permission, we won't be able to fund the new factory we need to build, which would put the business in jeopardy."Cllr Clark said: "One of the many shortcomings of the massive development of Portishead is the lack of any additional meeting space. "If houses are built on the A P Burt site, it will only add to the pressures on Portishead's infrastructure."The proposal would be far more acceptable if the company donated a small part of land to Portishead Town Council for a village hall."I suggest that the space for 10 homes would provide sufficient land and still leave the company with the considerable benefits of 110 building plots."What do the people of Portishead feel about this idea?