Council to roll out red carpet for jobs (From Gazette & Herald)

Council to roll out red carpet for jobs

9:48am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News

THE prospect of new jobs for Ryedale has been raised by plans to create an innovation campus at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) at Sand Hutton.

Coun Keith Knaggs, (Con), leader of Ryedale District Council, said: “This could be one of the most significant developments in Ryedale for many years. The Sand Hutton site is moving from sole use by Defra to becoming an applied innovation campus.”

He added that two small bio-science businesses had already located to the site this year.

“Without expanding the perimeter of the site there is the potential to raise the number of jobs from under 800 to about 1,400.

“This will include a lot of high-quality private sector jobs related to the bio-science theme.”

Coun Knaggs added: “The council is working closely with Science City York and the Local Economic Partnership to make progress with the highways agency on the traffic implications.

“We may look at making the site a simplified planning zone to signal that it welcomes the right of business.”