Former garden centre blooms back as office block

Planning chiefs have given the green light for a former Tarleton-based company to return to its roots.

An application to build new offices on the former Dunscar Home & Garden Centre site in the outskirts of Southport have been approved by West Lancs Council’s planning committee.

The plan is to redevelop the site on Southport New Road into office buildings to accommodate haulage and logistic specialists Barron Wood Distribution Ltd.

The company, which was formed in 1993 by brothers John and David Fairbrother and run from their grandparents’ farm in Tarleton, outgrew its premises and moved to Much Hoole in 2010.

It continued to expand, however, growing from employing 40 staff to approximately 200, and having extended its present build- ing three times has now reached the capacity of the site.

The development will see the demolition of the existing garden centre, cafe, and two bungalows and associated outbuildings and the erection of two one-storey H-shaped office buildings.

The cafe site will be used for car parking.

Dunscar Home & Garden Centre had been run by three generations of the same family for more than 70 years before closing its doors last year.