Children asked to re-name for London Road Industrial Estate, as West Berkshire Council outlines revamp timetable

School children in Newbury are being invited to enter a competition to re-name the London Road Industrial Estate.

West Berkshire Council – which is the landlord of the town centre site – announced the move at a public seminar last night (Tuesday).

The council, along with its design consultants and economic development partners, outlined their intended timetable to reboot the ageing estate.

They have now fully u-turned on the original plans to make the site financially viable with a residential development on the former football pitch at Faraday Road. That will now be developed into office space.

Justifying the shift, Simon Matthews of the Local Economic Partnership said: “We want West Berkshire to have a strong economic core to it. The economic case is that industrial property is doing well. Unless there is employment space, Newbury becomes more of a dormitory and less of an economic entity.”

Now, the council wants high net worth jobs to come to the town, and see the LRIE as a key location for tech and innovation businesses.

It is currently largely occupied by car sales rooms and garages.

In an hour long presentation, they outlined the ambition to create an appealing destination for businesses to come to, to create up to 200 new jobs by 2030.

Paradoxically, Hemingway Design’s Wayne Hemingway said in a post-Covid world the high streets perform well if office workers are present, and getting people back to desks "remains a big challenge".

“We have been looking at the changing nature of what people want from work… eg four day week," he said. "Work-life balance is a demand. A lot of progressive businesses are trying to make work more fun, social and green. So we need to create a more social relaxing place where you want to go to work.”

Public questions were limited, but included one about whether West Berkshire could take advantage of the lack of available laboratory space in the area, and whether there would be any affordable industrial units.