Shrewsbury abattoir objecting to hotel scheme
One of Shropshire's biggest employers has warned the livelihoods of hundreds of workers and thousands of farmers could be put at risk by plans to create a £3 million hotel and restaurant development close to its abattoir in Shrewsbury.
Officials from the ABP plant in Battlefield Road have put in an official objection to proposals to build a pub and restaurant run by Marston's Inns and Taverns, a drive-thru KFC takeaway and a 27-bedroom hotel on vacant land near its site.
The firm, which employs more than 500 people and has 3,000 farmers registered as suppliers, has warned the planned development could 'threaten the very viability of the plant' in future.
Plans for the hotel and restaurant development were unveiled last month, with developers stating the scheme could create about 100 jobs.
But ABP, which has operated from the Shrewsbury site since 1989, said having the two sites within about 100 metres of each other would be 'incompatible', with customers at the pub or restaurant likely to be unhappy to be so close to the 'standard activity' of the abattoir.
A statement sent by the firm to Shropshire Council planners, who will decide whether the scheme will get the go-ahead, said: "Land uses that have potential to bring significant numbers of the general public to the immediate area of the plant have the real potential to undermine the operational requirements of the plant to the extent that over time the very viability of the plant itself and thereby jobs could be threatened.
The developers who are behind the plans have said the site they are earmarking for the pub, restaurant and hotel is 'sustainable and accessible'.
