Two Newbury companies to relocate to business park

News follows announced changes at site

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.”