NEW jobs could be in the pipeline if the green light is given for an office block off Moons Moat Drive which will form a prestigious company headquarters.

Preliminary planning permission was granted by Redditch Council in December 1999 for a slightly larger block than the one now on the cards.

But councillors on the planning committee have now delegated a final decision on the building of a smaller block to planning officers.

Developers are hoping to build a two-storey office block on land next to the McDonalds Drive-Thru restaurant.

But the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), which has been consulted, feels the proposal is a departure from the Local Plan and would mean loss of trees.

As a result, the group has requested trees be planted as part of the development.

Officers, in consultation with the planning committee chairman Councillor Clive Cheetham, will take the final decision after negotiations with developers Morcroft Properties about installing a "sustainable drainage system" on recommendation from the Environment Agency.