Detailed plans for a new purpose-built Woods factory in Colchester were today revealed to the Evening Gazette.

The existing Flakt Woods site, in Tufnell Way, will be turned into about 750 new homes, open space, a creche, a doctor's surgery and a new shop.

The new housing will help pay for the new, slightly smaller factory, which will be built on a 13-acre plot at Cuckoo Farm.

Steven Knowles, the firm's managing director, has remained tight-lipped about the proposals as speculation has grown over recent weeks.

But today he said: "We have looked at several options and, while none have been entirely discarded, our preferred option is to redevelop Tufnell Way for housing.

"It will provide the funds needed to pay the relocation to Cuckoo Farm and protect many hundreds of jobs."

The proposals for the Tufnell Way site, founded during the 1930s, also include the preservation of significant belts of wooded areas and the creation of new pedestrian and cycle links.

Part of the land at Tufnell Way will be turned over to an area of public open space. Access to the Tufnell Way site will also be improved and widened, through the use of land already owned by the firm.

The firm hopes Colchester Council will decide the plans in the autumn with approval by the end of the year

Published Thursday, June 12, 2003