A NEW Vale of Mowbray pie factory could be up and running at Leeming Bar before the end of next year after plans were approved by Hambleton councillors yesterday.

The 134-year-old former brewery buildings which previously housed the factory in Leases Road were destroyed in a spectacular fire four months ago but the company has managed to maintain about 80pc production at its two other manufacturing sites on the nearby industrial estate.

The Leases Road site has been cleared of fire-damaged buildings but unaffected ones have continued to be used for distributing products and offices have been housed in portable cabins.

A replacement factory on the site was approved yesterday by Hambleton development control committee with 14 conditions attached and subject to the successful resolution of four outstanding questions involving design details, off-road waiting and turning space for lorries and vans and drainage arrangements.

VoM managing director John Gatenby said after the meeting: "We are going out to tender tomorrow and there is a timetable in the tender.

"We are clearly in the hands of the builders but, subject to a successful contract, we would be looking possibly at October next year to have a new factory up and running. The production side will go up first and the offices at a later date.

"Since the fire, people have had to work in portable cabins, which is obviously not very good for them. The two factories we are working in are in good condition and able to produce 80pc of our normal business but we cannot cope with additional promotions.

"We have lost two special Christmas pie lines because of the fire and this represents quite large business which we have to try to recover next year . Otherwise we are able to meet Christmas demand and have taken on about 70 additional workers."

* A decision on whether to support an extension to Leeming Bar industrial estate, also in Leases Road, was deferred again by the committee.

Members first deferred a decision last month to await more details of the need for the extension and the effects on a bottleneck junction on the A684 in the centre of Leeming Bar. Yesterday they heard that the information about traffic flows was still not available.