Construction has started on Swindon’s first speculative commercial property development since the economic downturn. Plans have also been unveiled for a new business park for the Wiltshire town which could create as many as 2,000 new jobs.
Aimed at start-up and expanding businesses, Glenmore Business Park on the Westmead Industrial Estate at Swindon is being developed by the London-based Glenmore Group, which specialises in smaller industrial facilities. All 13 units on its latest site will range from 969sq ft to 1,604sq ft.
The first phase of the scheme is due for completion early this summer. “For that we currently have three reservations, and with purchase prices starting at under £100,000, these offer excellent value to the small business,” said a spokesman for joint agents, Whitmarsh Lockhart and Loveday. “We have been experiencing increasingly positive demand from the business world and Glenmore’s decision to develop a small unit scheme of this nature is a reflection of our belief in the marketplace going forward.”
Glenmore — which has built several business parks and industrial estates across southern England and the Home Counties since its 1994 launch — has slated two more expansions to its Westmead estate project. It also has planning permission for a 35,000sq ft warehouse and separate office building on an adjoining site.
Swindon planners are also considering an application for a separate 98-acre commercial development to the east of the town at Marston Farm. Gleeson Developments has joined forces with Portfolio Holdings to put forward the 1.25m square feet scheme, to be called The Hub. They claim the hundreds of new jobs it will create will span a range of sectors including office, logistics support, drivers and warehouse staff.
“There are significant and immediate requirements within and around Swindon Borough for new commercial space, particularly larger distribution warehouses of up to one-million square feet,” explained Scott Chamberlin, of Gleeson Developments. “By providing the opportunity to live and work in the same area, it is not only sustainable but provides a further boost to the local economy as residents re-invest salaries in the local housing, retail and leisure market.”
The industrial application — which is adjacent to a proposed large-scale development of 6,000 new homes, shops, schools and health facilities — has already attracted criticism.
Sylvia Young is vice-chair of South Marston Parish Council. “I think our problems are not that it’s an application on a green field site with no infrastructure, but that it doesn’t contribute enough to making it work as an employment park,” she said.
“As a standalone application it is not connected well enough in terms of the road infrastructure, walking and cycling to the site, and there are definite difficulties with the capacity of the road to take the HGV traffic despite what the developers are proposing to do.”
The joint developers, however, are counting on a recent Swindon council decision to earmark the land “as suitable for additional employment”. And last week Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership called for the eastern villages development area to be fast-tracked to help grow Swindon’s economy.
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