Axminster Carpets Irish factory closes

Full story here.  The Irish factory has gone into voluntary liquidation blaming difficult trading conditions.

Currently, Axminster Carpets is embroiled in a judicial review regarding its planning decision to allow  Axminster Carpets to build houses on land it owns at Cloakham Lawns to the north of Axminister.  EDDC’s decision to grant the company planning permission is being judicially reviewed in the High Court in December 2012.  Unusually, the people in Axminster bringing the judicial review forward have been granted “protected costs” which means that even if they lose they will have to pay only minimal costs to the other side and not full costs which could have run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Managing Director of Axminister Carpets and EDBF member Josh Dutton had said at the time of the planning application that the company the capital from the scheme to expand the Axminster factory and create more jobs in the town.  However, if current trading conditions are so bad it would seem unlikely that this might happen in the near future.

Many people in Axminster would prefer to see much more housing constructed to the east of the town rather than to the north in order that a much-needed bypass might then be built and funded by developers who own the land there but EDDC has always been adamant that development should take place at Cloakham Lawns despite flooding and traffic worries.

Former head of Planning Kate Little said in the past that no by-pass would ever be built by developers to the east and any road through a new development to the east would simply be a “through road” rather than a bypass and had refused to add potential development of the east of Axminster to the current Local Plan.

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