Corkers Crisps factory near Ely to be rebuilt after fire damage
The gourmet crisp business once turned over £10m a year at the family's potato farm.Mr Taylor founded it in 2010 and previously told the BBC it "went up in minutes" when the blaze broke out in May 2020.
Speaking at the planning meeting on Wednesday, Mr Taylor said: "We supported a lot of jobs over the years and brought a lot of young people into jobs and trained them."It has been a big journey for us as a family to lose our family farm. "We were so proud of this business, it was such a big loss to the area."One person raised concerns at the meeting about emissions from the factory when it reopens.However, Mr Taylor said only condensation was emitted previously and this would be managed by a steam turbine.He insisted the factory "basically won't emit any fumes at all".
Alan Sharp, a Conservative councillor, praised Mr Taylor for his resilience in light of what was a "very sad situation".He questioned why an increase of car parking spaces was included in the plan, but was told this was to allow for "a better designed layout".Councillors unanimously approved the plans when it was put to a vote.
Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Why Chancellor Rachel Reeves must resist pressure to become a left-wing Liz Truss
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There is no doubting that Rachel Reeves is in an extremely difficult position – caught between Labour's pre-election promise not to raise taxes on 'working people', party rebellions over proposed benefit cuts, her own 'fiscal rules', and a national debt of £2.7 trillion. Amid these competing pressures, the Chancellor somehow needs to find a way to fill a £51 billion black hole in the government's finances in time for her autumn Budget, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a leading think tank. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Despite the exhortations of some on the hard-left, the Chancellor must avoid seeking the easy way out by suddenly deciding to throw out the rule book and transforming herself into a sort of left-wing Liz Truss. To be fair to Reeves, she shows no signs of making such a horrendous mistake, but political pressure can do strange things to even normally sensible people. A lettuce covers the face of Liz Truss on a campaign advertising board ahead of last year's general election, when she lost her seat (Picture: Jacob King) | PA Clever ploy that backfired The immediate market reaction to the disastrous mini-budget concocted by Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in 2022 led to her downfall within weeks. Despite containing an eye-watering £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts, the then Conservative Prime Minister pretended this was not a proper 'Budget' but only a mere 'mini-budget'. They thought this was a clever ploy, as it avoided the need to get an assessment from the Office for Budget Responsibility. However it turned out to be another reason why investors were so worried that the government's plans did not add up. The result was a fall in the value of the pound, rises in both mortgage rates and the cost of UK Government borrowing, and very real pain for ordinary people. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ideological dreamers on the hard-left and hard-right may refuse to accept the advice of the 'experts' they love to deride, but no Chancellor can afford to be so cavalier and hope to survive in their job for long.
New Statesman
an hour ago
- New Statesman
Labour is making Britain a more European country
Illustration by Jonathan McHugh / Ikon Images It was Nigel Lawson who stated the ambition most clearly. Nine years ago, a fortnight after the UK voted to leave the EU, the late Conservative chancellor hailed an opportunity to 'finish the job that Margaret Thatcher started'. For free marketeers, Brexit was the method, the object was to change the country's soul. The description of their vision as 'Singapore-on-Thames' has always been erroneous – this imagined libertarian Disneyland has a highly dirigiste state. But the aim was not in doubt: a Britain in which taxes would be cut, spending reduced and regulations eliminated. Brexit is an increasingly friendless project – Labour MPs note with interest how rarely Reform dares mention it; the last reference on the party's X account was in March. Only 29 per cent of the country, according to a new More in Common poll, would still vote Leave, while 49 per cent favour a referendum on rejoining the EU within the next five years. Far from regarding Keir Starmer's Europe deal as a 'betrayal', most believe it is too modest. Leavers can take solace from the implacability of Labour's red lines: Starmer has suggested there will be no return to the single market, the customs union and free movement in his lifetime. But those on the right who always viewed Brexit as a means rather than an end lack such consolation. If there is anything resembling a clear pattern from Labour's first year in office it might be this: the embrace of a more European-style economy. After Brexit, France and Germany took seriously the threat of acquiring a free-market upstart on their doorstep. In practice, the UK is mirroring them. Start with taxes and spending. As Rachel Reeves likes to remind left-wing critics, she used her first Budget to impose the largest increase in the former since 1993: £41.5bn, or 1.2 per cent of GDP. By 2027-28, the UK, a country traditionally described as having 'US-style taxes', will have a tax take of 37.7 per cent, putting it within touching distance of the Netherlands and Germany (even before Reeves' planned sequel). Public spending will settle at a similarly European level of 43.9 per cent of GDP. A shift that the Conservatives could plead was temporary – owing to the emergencies of the pandemic and the energy crisis – is becoming permanent under Labour. Reeves, fittingly, replaced a portrait of Lawson in her office with one of Ellen Wilkinson, Clement Attlee's education minister and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Next turn to workers' rights. Tony Blair once described his government's role as 'to campaign to extend flexible labour markets to the rest of Europe'. Starmer, by contrast, through the Employment Rights Bill, is importing a more continental model: a ban on 'exploitative' zero-hours contracts, an end to 'fire and rehire' and the extension of full rights to workers from day one. Cabinet ministers proudly point out that, far from being 'watered down', the bill has been strengthened in areas such as non-disclosure agreements. Then there is ownership. The UK's aversion to nationalisation under Thatcher and New Labour was yet another dividing line between it and statist Europe. Now Ed Miliband boasts of having established the 'first publicly owned energy company in over 70 years' (GB Energy), and rail franchises – some of them previously held by France and the Netherlands – are being reclaimed by the British state. This European turn could yet extend to welfare. Papers by Labour Together call for the reassertion of the contributory principle – with a far clearer link between what people pay in and what they get out, as is typical on the continent. This, the think tank suggests, would serve as an antidote to populists exploiting a broken social contract – one adviser references the fury of the Inbetweeners actor James Buckley at having to pay for a garden waste collection even as council tax continually rises. A new digital contribution card – recalling the National Insurance stamps once received by employees – is proposed alongside a system of unemployment insurance (potentially set as a share of earnings). Back in 2021, in a 12,000-word essay for the Fabian Society, Starmer championed the 'contribution society', one based on 'being part of something bigger, playing your part, valuing others'. This notion, cabinet ministers such as Liz Kendall and Shabana Mahmood believe, should be central to Labour's philosophy. There are moments when Starmer's often inchoate approach acquires more definition. During his press conference with Emmanuel Macron last month, he spoke of proving 'that social democracy has the answers' in contrast to the 'performative populism' of Nigel Farage. Here was a riposte to those who accuse him of engaging in no act more complex than chasing Reform's tail. But what direction is Starmer heading in? The UK is charting a different course yet Labour has left voters wondering whether this is the product of accident or design. In his first speech as Prime Minister, Starmer vowed to lead a government 'unburdened by doctrine' – an approach that disillusioned MPs contend has left his administration rudderless. 'There's too many concepts floating around at too high a level, which is what happens when intellectual leadership is lacking,' says one. The task facing Labour this autumn is to provide it. Rather than finishing the job that Thatcher started, Starmer has chosen to begin reversing it. He will soon have to tell voters why. [See also: The Online Safety Act humiliates us all] Related
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'Use us our lose us,' say Lancashire farmers
Farmers in Lancashire have urged the country to "use us or lose us" amid concerns that economic pressures could spell the end for the industry. Golding Farms and H&P Ascroft said changes to National Insurance, the minimum wage, and inheritance tax woud make it "virtually impossible" for the next generation of spoke to the BBC as part of Farmwatch, a series which hopes to shine a light on all things UK government has defended its inheritance tax reforms, describing them as "vital". Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
