Blooming good: industrial park voted best of North West

A Rochdale industrial park is celebrating after scooping a prestigious North West in Bloom award.

Heywood Distribution Park achieved a gold medal in the Best Retail, Commercial & Business Parks category and was also awarded the North West in Bloom trophy as Best Business, Industrial and Retail Park winners.

The 200-acre site has won similar awards over the past few years, but proud Assistant Park Manager John Groves was delighted with the latest recognition.

“The North West is quite a big area to be the best of!” he exclaimed.

“We were awarded the silver gilt medal the year before, so this time we did a bit more environmental stuff, and planting and got the gold award.

“It’s a big site - if you hopped on the lawn mower on Monday, you would not finish the whole site until the following Tuesday - eight days later - so a lot of work goes on.”

Mr Groves explained the site employs four staff to maintain the site, and businesses on the park - which include Argos, JD Sports, Eddie Stobart and Remploy - contributed a service charge towards the upkeep.

“It makes sure it’s well looked after,” he said.

The former Ministry of Defence site has been overtaken since receiving the award in October, by commercial property specialists Canmoor Developments buying it from SEGRO.

Mr Groves said the takeover would lead to a modernising of the site - but keeping the site at North West in Bloom’s gold standard is still a priority.

“It’s about building more modern units,” he explained.

“These are forward-thinking people looking to modify it.”

He added: “We will definitely be entering North West in Bloom next year - we have the gold certificate so it is now an ongoing thing to keep that up.”

Also recognised in North West in Bloom’s 2012 awards was St Edward’s Church of England School, Castleton.

The school received the environmental award for schools - the Seedley & Langworthy In Bloom Trophy for the second successive year.