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Makers of J2O and 7UP in £25 million investment in Leeds site creating 40 jobs

Around 40 new jobs are to be created at a Leeds bottling plant afterthe council agreed on a £25 million expansion of the Britvic factory in Swinnow, Leeds.

It will include side extensions to the factory in Swinnow Lane, which employs 150, as well as a bigger lorry parking yard and new staff car park.

The changes will also include a new high-speed bottling machine which will produce 36,000 two-litre bottles an hour and will be one of the fastest production lines of its kind in Europe.

A meeting of the South and West plans panel heard the plant was a “major” industrial site in the city.

The council had received 21 objections to the expansion plans from local homeowners concerned about noise from the round-the-clock operation.

However the meeting was told the firm has promised to install a special 5.5m noise-deflecting ‘acoustic’ fence at the site. The proposals represented a “significant investment” in the site, the panel heard.

Locals had also expressed fears there could be a negative impact on local house prices from what they described as a “ginormous” extension to the site.

A spokesman for Britvic, who was at the meeting, apologised for a “less than ideal” late consultation process. But he added changes had been made as a result of some of the feedback, with landscaping and fencing increased.

Councillors approved the project, with Coun Mick Coulson commenting: “I trust this company. I think they have proven they want to be neighbour-friendly.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .