THE former property arm of UK Coal that now owns the derelict Kellingley Colliery site said it is working “as flexibly as possible” to bring high value employment back to the area.

Harworth Group, which now operates as an independent company, has been tasked with redeveloping the site that was once home to one of Europe’s largest mines.

Working with Selby District Council, Harworth Group was last year granted outline planning permission to develop the 151-acre site to provide up to 1.45 million sq ft of manufacturing and distribution space, which could bring as much as £200 million of benefit to the local economy.

Speaking about the plans Iain Thomson, Harworth’s associate director for partnerships and communications, said: “We are tremendously excited about Kellingley’s potential. The site is well-suited to small industries but its size, as well as the rail and road links, makes it suitable for logistics too. We are flexible. We will sell bits of the site for companies to build on or we will do long-leasehold deals where we will act as the landlord once we’ve built a new unit out. We will act as flexibly as possible.”