Five Guys potato supplier EPS will get new plant near Wilmslow

At a meeting on Wednesday, Cheshire East Council’s northern planning committee unanimously gave E Park and Sons (EPS) the thumbs up to demolish its existing plant and build a replacement at its Bentworth headquarters in Lees Lane, Newton.

The family-run firm, which supplies potatoes for clients including the National Trust and burger chain Five Guys, employs 20 staff at Bentworth and is looking to recruit 15 more for the new plant.

But it has a more modern site near Doncaster where 140 employees are based – and if planning permission for the Newton plant was not secured, EPS was expected to move staff to the other plant.

Richard Park, director at EPS, told councillors: “Due to the changing marketplace the facility in Lees Lane is not fit for purpose anymore without major investment and it does not really meet our customers’ needs.

“We have a very loyal workforce on both sites with many staff being with us for over 25 years.”

Mr Park told the committee that the Newton plant takes deliveries of potatoes from farms in Cheshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire, before packaging them for distribution.

But he told councillors that 90 per cent of clients need the potatoes to be washed before they are packaged, and modern, environmentally-friendly washing techniques cannot currently be used at the 1950s-built plant at Bentworth.

Cllr Paul Findlow, Conservative, represents Newton as ward councillor on CEC and sits on the northern planning committee.

Opening the debate, he suggested that the benefits of the new plant outweigh any harm to building it on the green belt.

Cllr Findlow said: “This is a highly-regarded, local family business that provides valuable employment and is going to enhance employment prospects.

“It is obviously a good and viable business which has to respond to current operational requirements – therefore we want to keep the business and it not go somewhere else.”

New environmental techniques will allow mud from the potatoes to be recycled for farming, while water used for washing potatoes can be recycled for use elsewhere in the plant.

Cllr Puddicombe, Labour, added: “I would generally oppose development in the green belt but there are clearly other considerations here.

“I am impressed with the use of new technology, including the recycling of water and soil, and I think the moving of wooden stacks and crates would improve the landscape.”

James Brokenshire MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, will have the final say on the development as it sits within the green belt.