Firms homes plan accepted

Planners have backed down over demands for more homes to rent when the Flowserve site is redeveloped at Balderton.

The new £22.8m pumpmaking factory at Hawton Lane will be part-financed by building 210 new homes.

Newark and Sherwood District Council turned down the first planning application, because it wanted 30% of the homes available to rent through a housing association.

Flowserve Pumps Ltd argued that the project to replace the Victorian factory, where 300 people work, was viable only if the proportion was reduced to 10%.

The district council’s head of planning, Mr Mike Evans, said this week they had talked to the company about the exceptional circumstances of the application and the council agreed to accept 10%.

Mr Evans said they were still waiting for a formal response from Nottinghamshire County Council, the local highways authority, over traffic flow figures for the new development, which have caused concern in the past.

Flowserve’s project manager, Mr Bob Lambert, was not available for comment on the plans.

The factory makes industrial pumps and spare parts, as well as providing service and repairs.

Products from the Balderton factory serve the chemical, water, general industry and pharmaceutical markets.

The business faced an uncertain future after it emerged it was making a loss because of an increase in competition from China and India.

Its parent company, Flowserve Corporation, considered closing the site but deferred making a decision to allow the local management team enough time to come up with a proposal.

The housing and new factory plan was then formulated by bosses at the Balderton site.

The county councillor for Balderton, Mr Keith Walker, said it was important that the Flowserve factory remained in the area.

“The new factory will keep the work in Newark. If the application gets turned down there’s the chance it will leave Newark,” he said.

“If they keep to the 10% of affordable housing then it will work out well for everybody.”

The company was known worldwide as Worthington Simpson Ltd, a manufacturer of pumps, compressors and heat exchange equipment, before it was taken over by the Flowserve Corporation six years ago.

The engineering works at Balderton were built in 1901, and the company became Worthington Simpson in 1917.

In the last 37 years the company has had several American takeovers.