Pavers seeks £19m office and warehouse expansion in York

The move follows the city council refusing a £10 million warehouse expansion at Northminster last November, as the arable and grazing land site was on Green Belt land, with further concerns over noise, lighting and sustainable transport.

This immediately let the company to withdraw plans for a £9 million office scheme on the site and to further threaten to pull out of York entirely.

READ MORE: Pavers warns of 'significant' loss to York as expansion blocked by council

Now, following the election of a more supportive Labour council in the local elections last month, Pavers has submitted its plans, saying it has also addressed the reasons for the narrow-refusal by the former Lib-Dem- Green council administration.

Pavers seeks to extend its warehousing by 11,015m2, with new office space, saying the £19m spend will address the company’s critical need for a single, integrated operation.

The proposed office building (Image: Pic supplied)

Two separate planning applications say the company prefers to remain in York, where it was established more than 50 years ago.

READ MORE: Angry backlash over York council decision to block Pavers extension

However, planning documents admit “the most economically efficient option” would be to relocate elsewhere, where land would be cheaper, more available, closer to better transport links and more population.

Instead, the amended plans say noise and other technical matters have been resolved including a reduced building length and smaller car park. Bigger landscape buffers to reduce visual impact are also proposed.

They point out economic benefits of Pavers remaining in York, such as the extra 130 jobs both schemes would bring, adding to the 300 already present.

The expansion has been assessed as generating £6.44 million annual GVA (gross value added) to the York economy, which combined with existing Pavers operations would be worth £222.29 million GVA to the local economy over 10 years, Pavers continued.

The proposals are brought forward in the context of Pavers’ online activity growing by 700 per cent in the last three years alone, and its store estate increasing to over 185 locations nationwide.

The site of the proposed extension (Image: Planning documents)

This growth has meant the company has already reached operational capacity at its HQ and is reliant on a number of remote, third-party storage solutions for over 600,000 pairs of shoes.

Pavers says this costs the business more than £3 million a year and is not economical or sustainable for it to continue with its split-site operations.

Pavers believes it can deliver the ‘very special circumstances’ to allow the extension on Green Belt land, should the site retain such status.

Pavers told the Press: “The revised plans intend to address these inefficiencies and hope to illustrate to the Council the scope of future successful operations in York.”

READ MORE: 'York council mustn't let itself be bullied by Pavers'

The company added: “Pavers intends to enhance the York economy through job creation, and to continually support local communities through donations from its charitable Foundation, which has donated over £1.6 million since 2018, with £15,000+ to York-based charities and causes in the last year alone.”