Sudbury mayor urges town council to support collective approach to safeguard former Delphi site

Plans to launch a campaign to secure future mass employment at a Sudbury industrial site have drawn concerns.

Delphi Diesel Systems recently sold its manufacturing plant in Newton Road to Future Properties Industrial Ltd, with hundreds of jobs already lost at the site.

During a meeting of the Sudbury Town Council, which was held virtually last week, the authority was told that plans for its future use remained unknown.

Cllr Jack Owen, a former employer at Delphi, urged the authority to pledge its support to a collective approach, which would help to retain the factory site for industrial use, while ensuring that the nearby Delphi Centre remains in community use.

Cllr Owen said: “I think we have two very important elements there, one being a very useful and much-used social centre and, whilst that is of minimum concern, the major concern is obviously for employment purposes.”

Sceptical about the approach, fellow councillor Ellen Murphy said: “I have got grave concerns that we are discussing something that we know nothing about. We don’t know what the purchaser wants to do with the site.”

Warning of the potential repercussions that such an approach could pose, Jan Osborne, a town and district councillor, said: “Sudbury needs jobs, well-paid jobs, and my concern is that if, as a town council, we start to set down rules, we may lose out on a real opportunity.”

Pledging his support, Nigel Bennett stated that the authority had always been in favour of securing employment at the site.