DEMOLITION work has started at the former Terry’s chocolate factory, with developers revealing that hardly any scrap material will go to waste.

The six-month project, which is set to pave the way for a £165 million redevelopment creating up to 2,700 jobs, began on Monday at a former mass plant where cocoa beans were once processed.

Peter Callaghan, a spokesman for developers Grantside, said machinery had been brought on to an area of the site off Campleshon Road to remove steel wall cladding from the side of the building for recycling.

He said bricks would then be removed and crushed to form an aggregate, and the steel frame would be dismantled for recycling. Finally, the concetre base would be broken up and used in the construction of roads.

He said the plant work would take about three to four weeks, and would probably be followed by demolition of a former distribution warehouse on the corner of Campleshon Road and Bishopthorpe Road, with the emphasis again on the recycling of materials.

He said Demolition Services Ltd of Leeds had been contracted to carry out the whole project, which was likely to take about six months to complete and would also include the removal of asbestos materials.

Original, listed red brick buildings such as the landmark main chocolate factory building will be protected to become the centrepiece of the scheme, he stressed.

The buildings have stood empty since the landmark chocolate factory closed down in 2005 with the loss of the remaining 300 jobs, despite a campaign by The Press to save it from the axe.

York-based Grantside bought the site for £26 million in 2006, since when it has been working up proposals for a comprehensive redevelopment, which is set to lead to the creation of hundreds of homes, two hotels and shops, bars and restaurants.