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Lift-off for Westcott venture park expansion
Westcott Venture Park is set for a multi-million pound expansion onto land previously used for testing military rockets.
Aylesbury Vale District Council has granted outline planning permission for 300,000 sq ft of additional space to the business park's owners, Rockspring, which represents a 40 per cent increase in land for the site.
At the same time, the council approved a new entrance just off the A41 to the park. Rockspring said this would bring 'big environmental benefits' by taking heavy traffic out of Westcott village.
Rod Mordey, project manager at Westcott, said Rockspring was currently in negotiations with four businesses which are looking to move on to the 'solids area', previously used for the testing of solid fuel rocket propulsion devices at the former World War Two aerodrome facility.
"We probably won't be building (new premises) speculatively but rather with pre-lets in mind," he said. "That tends to mean building larger units rather than smaller units."
He said that building work on premises should start next year, and that this would trigger the new 3.5million entrance and access road being built.
There will be a new gatehouse to include office, security and convenience store, and associated parking. The new access road across the site will be screened with a wide bank of planted trees and the existing access will be closed. A new footpath will also improve pedestrian links from the bus stops on the A41 to the village.
On top of this, Rockspring is also set to build a household waste composting unit which Mr Mordey said should 'easily' generate enough power to supply energy and heat to the current and future site.
"The other sustainable thing we are trying to achieve is to construct the road without taking any material off the site," he said.
"We can use the top soil to provide noise attenuation bunds."
The successful planning permission for the expansion of the venture park covers the demolition of existing dilapidated MOD buildings in the south west corner of the park, and the development of new premises - these include for commercial, general industrial, and storage and distribution purposes. The permission also includes consent for a further four hectares of open storage.
Westcott Venture Park currently provides employment for about 400 people working for around 70 businesses.
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Weather for Aylesbury
Friday 25 May 2012
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