A multi-million pound plan to transform a former NATO airbase into a business campus could create as many as 8,000 new jobs, its developer has claimed.
Urban and Civic, owners of the disused RAF and USAF airfield at Alconbury has already received outline permission for its 70-acre scheme and has just submitted a detailed application for £10m worth of infrastructure work and an initial incubator office block.
If approved preparation work on the enterprise zone site would begin this autumn with the demolition of 43 derelict military buildings, the removal of old taxiways and concrete aircraft dispersal points and the creation of two “infrastructure nodes” with power, water and digital connectivity for more than 800,000 sq ft of commercial space.
In its application, Urban and Civic explained that phase one of the scheme was designed to provide a “blank canvas” of developable plots, both for buildings which are already planned and also to meet the requirements of customers looking to move on to the site.
Tim Leathes is project director for Urban and Civic. “We are very much looking forward to getting going with this next phase of this long-term project,” he said. “It has been a real partnership effort to bring forward this stage and translate the considerable interest from companies into actually creating new buildings and real jobs.”
Huntingdonshire District Council, which is considering the latest application, has already unveiled its own blueprint for the 1,400-acre former airbase which includes a range of business developments, schools and up to 5,000 homes. Although it wants to concentrate on the industrial and commercial potential, Urban and Civic has said there is a residential element to its future strategy.
Its follow on plans include a business centre with a meeting space, gym and restaurant and a new home for Cambridge precision engineering company The Welding Institute and a technical and vocational centre specialising in the built environment and engineering.
“As a council we are anxious to see this business start-up hub completed as quickly as possible,” said Huntingdonshire District Council leader, Jason Ablewhite. “Not just for the transformation of the former airfield into Alconbury Enterprise Campus and the creation of thousands of new jobs, but also as a significant asset to support the growth of the regional and national economy.”
Established as a military airfield in 1938, RAF Alconbury was used by the Royal Air Force throughout the Second World War. In 1951 it was mothballed and used as a storage and distribution base by the RAF, its vast size making it ideal for dismantling munitions.
Less than a year later, as the Cold War escalated, RAF Alconbury was taken over and expanded by the United States Air Force in Europe and increasingly used as a base for high altitude spy planes.
All flying ceased in 1995 with the American pull out. Since then the airfield has been through the ownership of Prologis, which acquired consent for its use as a road and rail freight terminal, before it was acquired in 2009 by Urban and Civic.
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