Chard: Former Oscar Mayer factory site still uncertain

The Oscar Mayer factory site closed in Chard after 38 years in August 2021

The future of a town's former factory site remains uncertain more than two years after it closed.

Oscar Mayer closed its factory in Chard in August 2021, with 860 job losses, with the company arguing it was too expensive to modernise the site.

The factory was sold off by JLL in September 2022 to an undisclosed buyer, with it being earmarked for housing.

The site on A358 Furnham Road still remains vacant with no formal planning application for its redevelopment.

Somerset Council said it had not received any formal application for the ex-Oscar Mayer site from the new owners or any third party and stressed it was keen for some form of employment to be retained within the site.

A spokesman for Somerset Council said: "The site is located within the development area for Chard.

"Specific allocations within Local Plans are generally used where land is expected to come forward for development of a particular type of the plan period.

"It is too early in the plan-making process for the new Somerset-wide Local Plan to consider specific site allocations."

Brownfield developments in Somerset can attract central government funding to ensure more affordable housing and commercial space can be delivered than would often be possible with a purely market-driven scheme.

The council said it would not apply for any such funding until a formal proposal for housing, commercial space or other uses for the site had come forward and added it is "too early to comment" on the nature of any particular redevelopment proposals.