No jobs, no houses: Calls to block sale of McVitie’s site if the axe falls

Plans to avert job losses at a Scots biscuit factory will include a proposed new factory on regeneration land a couple of miles from the present site.

McVitie’s announced in May it planned to shut its last remaining Scottish factory, at Tollcross in Glasgow, with the loss of 500 jobs.

Unions, meanwhile, have appealed for a block on future planning permission for the Tollcross site, the location of a biscuit-making factory since 1925, should owner Pladis shut its Scottish operation.

A counter-proposal to closure, from a Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council-led action group, will be submitted to McVitie’s Turkish-based owner on Tuesday and will include plans for a new “best in class” factory.

It is understood Clyde Gateway, the regeneration area covering Bridgeton, Dalmarnock and Rutherglen, has been earmarked as a preferred location, with the Shawfield area being considered.

A letter with 40 signatories – including branches of the GMB, Unite, RMT and Aslef unions, representing 80,000 members, as well as Glasgow’s four Labour MSPs – is also appealing that, if the counter-proposal is rejected, the site will be blocked from future “planning permission for residential property or similar development”.

GMB Scotland organiser David Hume said: “We are clear that only if Pladis agrees to cooperate to save these jobs and protect our local community, should the land it owns then be repurposed for residential use and sold on for that purpose.”

A source close to the negotiations said: “Various financial models are being looked at and funding from the land at the existing site could help. What’s being planned would be best in class and a big step forward. The Scottish operation could become the best-performing among the Pladis estate.”

Paul Sweeney MSP, Scottish Labour’s Shadow Minister for Employment, said: “I am hopeful counter-proposals to closure will elicit a positive response from Pladis.”