Approval for £80m upgrade on storage warehouse

A planned £80m upgrade to a cold storage firm's warehouse, in a proposal that would double storage capacity, has been given the go-ahead.

Constellation Cold Logistics (CCL) has had its plans to build a new cold store warehouse at its site on the Park Lane Industrial Estate in Wolverhampton approved by the council.

The "entire Park Lane facility" was outdated, and refusal would likely have meant relocating "potentially within a different authority – and the loss [of] existing and proposed jobs", a statement said.

CCL, which bought the site in 2023, stated it would need "significant investment", as it had last been upgraded 30 years ago and some buildings dated back to the 1950s.

The statement added that the firm had identified "other opportunities within the Black Country", but this would likely result in needing to relocate the "entire campus" because of operational efficiencies of keeping "all operations in close proximity".

The warehouse would be up and running by next summer if the application was given the go-ahead, CCL said.

The proposal would create 37 new jobs and double storage capacity at the site to 40,000 pallets.

The facility was purchased "on the value of land only, with the buildings assigned no value due to the need to imminently redevelop", according to the statement.

It said if CCL could not carry out the first stage of its plans, including the new cold-store warehouse, then it would be forced to leave Park Lane as soon as possible.

The council had 10 objections against the work, saying Park Lane was already congested. Those objecting were concerned about the "significant" increase in lorries – particularly with the warehouse operating 24 hours a day – and the potential impact of more noise, emissions, light pollution and parking problems.

But the authority approved the plans to build the new 108,900 sq ft warehouse.

A previous planning application, submitted in October but withdrawn by December, had promised an estimated £90m investment and more new jobs, as part of new and extended facilities that would have tripled the site's pallet storage to 60,000.

The plans were withdrawn over concerns from the council over the size of the warehouse and its potential impact on neighbours.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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