Councillors asked to take stance on the Parker Knoll site (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Councillors asked to take stance on the Parker Knoll site

A CHIPPING Norton town councillor has called on the authority to take a position on the future of the Parker Knoll site.

As reported in the Journal last week, furniture makers Silentnight has announced it intends to close the factory in London Road by the end of this year, with the loss of 250 jobs.

The company is seeking to sell-off a large part of the15-acre site for housing.

However, councillor Gerry Alcock accused the town council on Monday of failing to back an earlier plan to develop small business units on the site, which could be linked under a common theme of textiles and furniture making.

"We really need this development to be something which stands a chance of being sustainable in the future.

"I do think it's a great shame that the town council, having turned that down, has not formulated any view on what it wants to see happen to the Parker Knoll site," said business liaison committee chairman coun Alcock.

Town and county councillor Robert Evans agreed that the town council ought to be more proactive.

"We ought to see ourselves as potentially movers and shakers in this town," he said. The council agreed to organise a special meeting to look at the options for the future of the site.

Mayor Jo Graves, the leader of West Oxfordshire District Council Barry Norton, local MP David Cameron and representatives of Oxfordshire County Council met Parker Knoll management on Tuesday.

Afterwards coun Graves said the company's managing director Mary Czulowski and site manager Richard Curtis were open to suggestions of help on re-training staff.

She said they were told that work on the company's classic range made in Chipping Norton is being transferred to South Africa and a new range will be made in Poland.