Tool company sets sights on move to former Jaguar site
A COVENTRY firm which supplies machinery to manufacturers, including in the car industry, wants to build a new factory at the former Jaguar site at Browns Lane.
The application by Expert Tooling and Automation is for a factory, offices, a service yard suitable for heavy goods vehicles and car park.
The company wants to build them on a plot of unused land set aside for development at Lyons Park off Coundon Wedge Drive.
Houses in Lyons Drive back on to part of the site and the RSPCA’s animal centre in Coundon Wedge Drive is close to one corner.
Initially the plot was set aside for offices but nobody has came forward wanting to build any.
The company has its Midlands headquarters in Wickman’s Drive, Tile Hill, and makes production equipment for a range of sectors including the automotive industry, aerospace, and the medical industry.
People have chance until the end of February to tell Coventry City Council what they think about the proposals. A decision is expected from planners early in March.
The whole of Lyons Park was given outline planning permission for development in 2009 not long after the Jaguar factory was demolished. Several companies have already moved in.
In December last year, council planners gave permission for a IT may seem like it would only be of use to pupils at Hogwarts, but teaching children magic could help with their education, it has been suggested.
Teaching youngsters magic tricks in the classroom can help build their confidence and improve their speaking and listening, according to a small group of magicians and head teachers.
Sally Quirk, head of St John’s CE Primary in Sevenoaks, Kent, said magic workshops at her school had helped pupils learn to communicate well with others. “I had read about the way in which magic can involve speaking and listening skills, which is something we are very keen to promote,” she said, adding that magic gives pupils the “the perfect opportunity to speak out loud”.
Mrs Quirk said: “Each group were taught how to speak in front of and engage an audience, and were also taught a trick. They then performed it for each other and then to other classes.” 40,000 metre square warehouse at Lyons Park, which is believed to be for online retail giant Amazon. The plans, which would create an estimated 1,600 jobs – and even more at Christmas, prompted major opposition with more than 100 objections lodged over complaints including noise, congestion and light pollution.
Browns Lane began as a Second World War shadow factory before Jaguar took over the site in 1950 and maintained car production until 2005. Among the most famous models made at the factory were the E type along with the XJ and XK.
In 2005 when the factory closed production moved to the Castle Bromwich plant leaving only the wood veneer operation which moved shortly afterwards.
The building was demolished in 2008.