There has been a delay to the Bushy’s Brewery bid to take over Castletown Commissioners’ works yard off Alexandra Road.

Castletown Town Commissioners said that the authority has received correspondence from the Department of Infrastructure stating that it would be premature for the department to consider a petition in relation to the sale of the site.

This is because the department needs to wait until the planning process has been determined and potential alternative locations for the town’s work facilities confirmed.

The local authority statement said: ‘Whilst the delay in the process is frustrating to all parties, Castletown Town Commissioners appreciate the position of the Department and would thank them for their wider positive feedback and offer of collaborative working to bring the process to a conclusion in a timely manner.

‘It is anticipated that a planning application for the proposed brewery and associated infrastructure will be submitted in the near future.

‘An updated petition will be resubmitted to the Department at such time as the planning process has been determined.’

The deal was announced last year, with the Commissioners previously saying that they intend to sell the land and associated buildings to the brewer for £625,000.

Bushy’s Brewery is currently located in Mount Murray.

Martin Brunschweiler, founder and former owner of Bushy’s Brewery, said: ‘The Commissioners’ yard is to become available and it just seemed like a wonderful opportunity to relocate because where we currently operate is a little bit remote.

‘This new site will give us the chance to have a state of-the-art Brewery, visitor’s centre, a restaurant and an area for sampling the beers when we are doing brewery tours.’

He added: ‘I have had very positive feedback from the people that I have spoken to.

‘Castletown has had such a rich history of brewing and we are very conscious of that heritage, so we want to revisit all those aspects of the history of brewing in the town, and we will be looking at aspects of how it worked in Castletown.

‘We are also conscious that we want to be good neighbours and we still have to meet with some of the nearby residents and allay any fears that they might have.

‘We are not planning to cause any disruption or anything.

‘It is currently a commissioners’ yard, so there is a fair amount of noise and activity there at the moment, and we are not expecting to make things any worse than residents have experienced.

‘With modern techniques nowadays, there won’t be any odours or brewing smells so we are not anxious about any problems in that area.’

‘Everything is subject to planning permission but we have been making slow progress with it.’

Mr Brunschweiler added: ‘We are very excited by this project, under our new ownership, we have been given opportunities that we could never have thought about in the past, it is an exciting chapter.’