A fresh bid to construct new houses on the site currently occupied by a busy Co Antrim meat processor won't put jobs in jeopardy.

Cullybackey's pork processing factory was dramatically saved from closure a year ago, after a planning application to demolish the former Stevenson and Co plant at Fenaghy Road and zone the land for housing was refused.

The factory was rescued in January, 2009 by the Co Tyrone based Dunbia group after Stevenson and Co, which was in business for more than 150 years, announced rising costs were forcing it to close.

Dunbia secured around 100 local jobs and created up to 70 more and boosted existing pig production.

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However, a new planning application has now been submitted by John McVeigh and Company that again proposes using the site and adjoining land for a residential development of detached and semi-detached dwellings, townhouses and apartments.

It was just before Christmas that the application was readvertised after planners received an "amended concept plan, contamination report and remediation strategy".

The first, initial application was refused in 2008 by planners after they said the existing industrial land and building were, "a vital local resource which must be maintained".

Insufficient information regarding potential contamination of the site and acceptability of the proposed development were also cited as reasons for refusal.

Denying any plans to shut-down, a spokesperson for Dunbia said it was "fully committed to sustaining and developing pork processing operation in Ballymena".

"Going forward, our focus will continue to be on the strategic growth of the Dunbia Group as a whole, with each of our sites playing a key role within that."

However, the Unite Trade Union has also written to the Planning Service voicing its objection to the application.

(BMcC/GK)