Jobs saved as factory moves

The employees of Osborne Refrigeration started the transfer from their current premises to their new base this week.

The process has begun with the office functions of the fridge and freezer maker.

Those employees are making the move about 100 yards westwards along Rose Green Road to an existing building behind number 142.

The next section to shift to that site will be manufacturing. This is likely to take place in the next two months.

Once the current factory is empty, it will be demolished and replaced by an estate of 90 homes built by developer Barratt Southampton.

The current offices and four bungalows along Rose Green Road '“ numbers 120, 122, 130 and 132 '“ will also be pulled down. Planning approval for the work was granted by Arun District Council last week.

Osborne Refrigeration's managing director, Jeff Osborne, said after the meeting: "This decision ensures that Osborne Refrigeration carries on. If it had gone against us, things would not have been too comfortable for us."

The new premises were about a third of the size of the current factory of 62,000sq ft.

"We've been there for nearly 50 years. In that time, manufacturing has changed immensely," explained Mr Osborne. "We can make as much in the new factory as we make in the old one and we can develop the new factory into a state-of-the-art facility."

His company manufactures up to a hundred fridges a day. Their size ranges from a cabinet to a room. Many are exported.

He added: "We are a major manufacturer in the UK for this sort of product and a market leader in ozone friendly and carbon friendly fridges."

Arun's development control committee gave the go ahead for the new housing. It will consist of 58 houses and 32 flats up to 2.5 storeys high.

Council planning officer Jonathan Parsons told councillors the 1.85 hectare site was partially located outside the area where building would normally be allowed.

But the fact that most of the land was occupied for an industrial use, and that no jobs would be lost because of the new housing, meant that an exception could be made to the council's land use policies.

"The site is isolated within a residential area and is not within an industrial estate," he stated.

"It is, therefore, considered that the loss of the industrial floor space in this instance is justified.

"The form and density of the development is considered to be acceptable in this locality."

A transport policy formed part of the planning permission to try to limit the impact on construction traffic on the surrounding residential roads.

This was suggested by Cllr Ricky Bower (East Preston). He said: "This is clearly a very substantial development. It comes at a time when substantial developments are all the rage around Bognor Regis.

"One thing that concerns me is the amount of construction traffic that is going to be going on to this site and what route this traffic will be taking.

"We don't want it blocking the roads around Bognor."

Cllr Sylvia Olliver (Bersted), a resident of Rose Green Road in the 1940s, said she was unhappy with the scale of the housing.

"Rose Green is a village and this scheme is so overpowering, especially the flats. It's so over-intensive for this area.

"This is not only moving on with the site. It's moving up and moving out," she commented.

She and Cllr Simon McDougall (Bersted) cast the only votes against the scheme.

Objections from Aldwick and North Mundham parish councils were received by Arun along with 18 individual protest letters.

Osborne Refrigeration recently received approval from Arun to change the use of a warehouse into the new factory.