Erewash factory job plans

The proposed Fassa Bortolo factory on the former Stanton Ironworks. Image from Stephen George Architects.

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

More than 50 jobs are set to be created at a new factory on one of Derbyshire’s largest brownfield sites as part of its ongoing regeneration.

Plans from Verdant Regeneration would see a construction materials factory built on the former Stanton Ironworks site – now known as New Stanton park – on the outskirts of Ilkeston.

Erewash Borough Council planning officers have recommended approval of the plans at a meeting on Wednesday, February 11.

If approved, a render product manufacturing plant would be built in the back right-hand corner of the 200-acre site, creating 55 full-time jobs as part of the former Stanton Ironworks site’s 4,000-job regeneration, approved in 2022.

Verdant is the site owner but the operator would be Fassa Bortolo, an Italian construction firm with branches across Europe and South America.

Fassa Bortolo produces a range of construction materials, including mortars, ready-mixed plasters, paints, and installation products and solutions for renovation, restoration, and thermal insulation.

This would be its first UK location, with the firm saying: “The scheme will deliver significant economic and employment benefits, reinforce the Fassa Bortolo brand in the UK, and contribute to the long-term sustainable regeneration of New Stanton Park.”

The project would take up 17 acres of the sprawling former ironworks and include a four-line production facility using raw materials such as limestone quarried in the Peak District, which would be processed into powered render used in the construction industry “as an applied finish to building envelopes”.

It says: “The finished product is distributed to market by filled silos on HGVs or bagged up by the palette load.”

The tallest building on the site would be a 60-metre-tall process tower at the back of the plot, but close to the Erewash Canal and Nutbrook Trail.

A training centre would also be built as part of the project, teaching approved installers.

The site would have 97 parking spaces for cars and seven for HGVs, along with 20 spots for bikes and 10 electric vehicle charging stations.

In their application documents, the applicant said the industrial form will remain a consistent characteristic feature of the landscape.

They added: “The proposals represent the next stage in the continued evolution of the site and its setting, continuing the traditional pattern of industrial development and land uses.”