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Melksham Cooper Tire factory land up for auction

BBC Cooper Tires, Melksham, showing the front of the buildingBBC
The Cooper Tires factory in Melksham closed in December 2023 after operating for decades

The site of a former tyre factory which shut after operating for decades is to be auctioned off.

US firm Cooper Tire & Rubber Company closed its site in Melksham in December, resulting in 300 job losses.

The first round of bids for the site are due by midday on Friday, and the owners of the site will select a preferred purchaser by the end of February.

A campaign group has been set up to try and preserve the land.

Car tyre manufacturing at the Melksham site dates back to the 1890s, but the US owners say the town centre plant is now too old and too small to compete in the global marketplace.

Soggy looking land in Winter - grey sky, trees with no leaves.
The land runs alongside the River Avon and is well-known by Melksham residents

The overall land of the former factory covers 68 acres (27 hectares). Half of that land consists of green space which runs along the River Avon.

Campaigners from the Melksham Green Space group are concerned the green space alongside the river could be developed.

Just under 1,000 signatures have been collected in a petition to try and save the land.

Councillor Jennie Westbrook said the campaign group are looking at whether the community can arrange a group purchase to retain the green space.

Three people standing in front of the land in winter coats - one wearing a thick colourful scarf. The land is showing it is winter, with leaves off the trees and the field bare.
Councillor Jennie Westbrook, Ian Cardy and Nigel Benham are part of the Melksham Green Space group

Ms Westbrook said the loss to the community would be "unbearable".

"It's not just the loss of lovely green space, it's the loss of recreational space and biodiversity in the middle of a climate emergency," she said.

"It's an area that is being well used by people for their mental health and it's very important that we retain places that people are trying to use to help with their mental health.

"Whoever ends up buying it, we hope that they would be looking at the area to make it somewhere as community use and to retain it as green space."

Real estate company Cushman & Wakefield said that although they would prefer to sell the land as a whole, they will consider selling the land separately.

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