A PLANNED move to Tockwith by a company producing animal care products and industrial chemicals has been abandoned.

Animalcare, which has bases throughout the UK, had planned to consolidate its operations at the Tomlinsons Antiques site at Moorside, and had submitted a planning application to Harrogate Borough Council.

However, Animalcare chairman James Lambert said the move would be costly and the benefits of consolidation were not there.

He said: “It didn’t make sense moving all the machinery and the people. Property has also changed so much since we started the project and the intellectual argument of why we were putting the two businesses together simply didn’t make enough sense.”

He said the culture of the business would be brought together by having a single chief executive, after the managing director of its veterinary products business, Stephen Wildridge, was appointed chief executive following the departure of Simon Riddell.

The business will now continue to operate from its four locations in County Durham, Masham, Dunnington and Brixworth, in Northamptonshire.

In February, The Press revealed the move would also include the relocation of Travik Chemicals, a company which produces agricultural and industrial cleaning products. A spokesman for the company said the products produced by Travik were “benign”.

He said: “We produce a range of cleansing products that you may well have in your own home.

“The last thing we would want to do is set about polluting their (Tockwith residents) or our environment.

“I can’t imagine there would be any reason for residents to worry at all.”

Animalcare submitted the planning application to Harrogate Borough Council in October 2009, seeking a change of use from storage and distribution to also include general industry and the construction of a new storage area at the site.

Animalcare planned to bring together the two sides of its business, in veterinary products and animal tagging.