A busy time in certain sectors despite the dreaded B-word
Newbury News Ltd. Print-Digital-Social
Newbury News Ltd. Print-Digital-Social
Tue, 11 Sept 2018
dan.cooper@newburynews.co.uk
TWO businesses are preparing to relocate to Greenham Business Park.
IT firm Roc Technologies, currently based in Wharf Street, will be moving into a new unit at the park to accommodate its ongoing growth.
Meanwhile, 3TRDP, a 3D printing company currently based at Fulton Court, Wofford Way, Newbury, is to move to the former Liberty Ballroom site.
The news comes just a week after a revised Local Development Order (LDO) for the business park was submitted.
The original draft LDO was amended following feedback from West Berkshire residents via a public consultation.
West Berkshire Council and Greenham Trust prepared a draft Local Development Order in May – a proposal that would see the economic profile of the district radically transformed.
LDOs allow greater flexibility over how and where new buildings are set out and remove the need to make a planning application to the local planning authority.
They also establish development parameters or ‘ground rules’ – pre-approved regulations with which potential investors or businesses would have to comply.
But, following a month-long public consultation on the proposed development, planning officers have accepted that the LDO – scheduled for a period of 25 years – was “too far-ranging”.
Initial plans included the construction of a 120-bed hotel on the site, which already provides 2,000 jobs across 180 businesses – but that idea has now been scrapped.
Several objectors also argued there should be a review period, with a significant number arguing that 25 years was too long.
As a result, the LDO period has now been reduced to 15 years.
Less than half (40 per cent) the 1.6 million sq ft of land permitted for development is currently in use at Greenham Business Park, which allows considerable scope for further investment.
Chris Boulton, the chief executive of Greenham Trust, which runs the business park, said: “The LDO is a scheme which has worked well in other parts of the country.
“We have looked at it and the height of the buildings is sympathetic to the local surroundings.”
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Article comments
bruin the bear
20/09/2018 - 09:09
Great local asset. WBDC often take our economy for granted, we cannot all work in coffee shops or as Consultants to WBDC! :)
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TonyForward
12/09/2018 - 13:01
WBC officers have said the “LDO will be “light touch”. What this means is sparse on precise detail, constraint and conditions. The comment has been made it works elsewher but eslewhere the conditons for example are quite robust here they are glaring by their almost no-existence. The views from the common are precious to some so how do we reconcile buildings at 12m tall all across the skyline. This is a mere 0.365m less than the Provender building we can see and smell today. The documents with the LDO talk of gaps etc. but no detail on any formulea to reduce mass for example exisits. If approved the LDO as it is drawn up enables the whole skyline to be obliterated. Buildings within the business park are allowed to be even taller at 14m. An area near local residents should only be for the encouragement of new companies or firms setting up a business which are currently largely single storey so at 11m per building this hardly fits. A noise report is so sparse it says nothing.
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GreenhamPete
12/09/2018 - 13:01
All positive news for GCT and it's ongoing support of West Berkshire causes.
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jackboy
11/09/2018 - 12:12
A little misleading. One cpmpany is relocating to the business park, Fulton Way is on the business park so 3TRDP are already there.
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Tommy
11/09/2018 - 18:06
Yes, a bit of poor reporting there !
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