Green light for £30m automation training centre

Plans to build a £30m manufacturing training centre in a Nottinghamshire town have been approved.

The new Automated Distribution and Manufacturing Centre (ADMC) will sit on Lowmoor Road in Kirkby in Ashfield.

Ashfield District Council has described it as the "flagship project" of its £62.6m Towns Deal.

Council planners approved the application on 31 July but a decision on when construction will begin has yet to be made.

The council says the seven-acre site will work with businesses on how technology can help them, enable them to test how things could work within their own business and train staff on how to use and maintain automated systems.

Councillor Matthew Relf, said: “The ADMC is a hugely exciting project for the Ashfield, the benefits of which will be felt for generations to come."

Objections had been raised about noise, pollutions, the impact of wildlife and the sites proximity to housing.

The authority said native trees and hedging would be planted to create a "new high-quality habitat" and to act as a screen from a nearby residential estate.

A new species-rich meadow and wet grassland meadow will also be created.

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