Company quits after red tape battle
A company has quit the Black Country after a five month disagreement over red tape with council chiefs – which has resulted in the loss of 12 jobs.
A company has quit the Black Country after a five month disagreement over red tape with council chiefs – which has resulted in the loss of 12 jobs.
Ian Edwards, managing director of Enviromise, in Oldbury, has left his Church Bridge premises and made workers redundant because he says it took too long to get planning permission for his business. Sandwell Council today said it was a noise nuisance issue rather than a planning matter but Mr Edwards is now relocating to Chester.
This will force him to give up a £200,000 grant for equipment from Advantage West Midlands and eight new job opportunities.
The company is one of the first businesses in the UK to efficiently process tyre wire waste following investment in pioneering new machinery.
But Mr Edwards, from Wednesbury, now faces a three hour round trip commuting every day to the north west city after the council applied stringent noise conditions.
He said: "We are really disappointed to have to relocate, but the new site already has a licence for waste management and the north west authorities appear to have a far more proactive approach to regeneration. The premises in Oldbury used to be a warehouse where they manufactured windows so when we took it over in April we had to apply for a change of use.
"We went to about four different planning meetings and they were in no rush. They did not try to help us at all and for a council that says it supports manufacturing I think it's pretty poor really."
The company has recently invested in new equipment which allows all of the tyre waste to be reprocessed for other products.
Sandwell Council's neighbourhoods chief, Councillor Mahboob Hussain said: "Sandwell Council's planning committee granted permission for Enviromise to operate this tyre recycling venture with clear conditions on noise, following talks with the company's noise consultants and the council's noise experts in environmental health.
"This noise was investigated and we found it constituted a statutory nuisance. An abatement notice was issued requiring the operators to reduce the noise within two months. The company then decided to relocate."
