Keynsham firm IJ McGill Transport has submitted a planning application to extend a warehouse at its Avon Mill Lane headquarters to keep up with customer demand.
The IJ McGill site in Keynsham
The warehousing and storage business at the former paper mill site is complementary to the distribution business.
IJ McGill Transport Ltd has depots in Devon, Buckinghamshire, the Midlands and Manchester, but operates its UK-wide company from Keynsham.
Until 2019, when McGill’s moved in, the former Keynsham Paper Mill site had been used for 20 years by DS Smith as a paper recycling depot.
The planning application submitted to Bath & North East Somerset Council seeks permission to extend the warehouse that McGill’s built in 2022, and the demolition of some of the existing buildings on the site to improve the layout.
A planning statement says: “Since Covid and with the impact of Brexit and the war in Ukraine, together with other global issues affecting supply routes, UK companies are making greater use of storage to ensure they have a good supply of stock for their customers.
“This has seen a growth in the warehouse storage business for IJ McGill Transport Ltd, with the new warehouse that was built in 2022 now full to capacity.”
It adds: “The storage facility serves, and will support in the future, local businesses in Bath and Bristol, providing sustainable solutions and the ability to distribute goods to these local centres on smaller vehicles.
“Goods for storage arrive on site in shipping containers for unloading and transfer into the warehouse.”
After demolition is taken into account, the proposal represents a net gain in floorspace of 3,702.59sq m.
The planning statement says: “Previously, local councillors have expressed concern about the loss of B8 warehousing in the Keynsham area. This proposal helps redress that balance by creating more capacity.”
It adds that an “extensive” appraisal of the site had been undertaken to establish the best location for the additional warehouse space.
“It is understood that a proposal for a new link road to the north of the site is back under consideration although no details of the proposed route are currently available.
“This is one of the major constraints that need to be considered when developing the site.
“As the actual position of the link road has yet to be determined it was clear that to avoid delay, any further expansion needed to be made to the southern section of the site, and in that respect an extension to the 2022 warehouse would be the best option even though this will require the demolition of part of the old paper mill that is currently used for warehousing and offices.
“This option does make the construction process more complex in that stage 1 of the new warehouse will need to be fully operational prior to the demolition of the old paper mill building so that goods can be moved into the new warehouse.”
It is envisaged that the warehouse extension would result in the increase to the workforce of 10 personnel. The current number of employees is 116.
The planning reference is 25/01924/FUL. The deadline for comments is 3rd July.
