Employment site at Welborne given the green light in milstone step - with school expected to follow suit
Welborne Garden Village milestone reached
Plans for a new employment park at Hampshire’s new eco town have been given the green light - with a new primary school expected to also soon follow suit.
Planning permission has been granted for the first phase of a major new employment park at Welborne Garden Village with nine commercial units set to be creased on land to the south of the new 6,000-home town which is being built near Fareham.
The site will have a cumulative floor area of 22,445sqm - roughly equivalent to the size of three professional football pitches - as part of the first phase of the employment park which is being created on land which will be accessed from the reconfigured road layout being created just off the M27.
And Welborne’s first school has also taken a step closer to reality after Fareham Borough Council raised no objection to plans for the new 420-place primary school, helping to pave the way for it be rubber stamped by Hampshire County Council later this year.
The decisions following hot on the heels of the ongoing M27 Junction 10 motorway improvements, which are due for completion later this year, and the first new residents moving onto the site.
Fareham Borough Council’s Planning Committee approved detailed designs for the commercial units which form a key component of the Welborne’s vision to provide employment opportunities for Welborne residents, the borough and the wider Hampshire region.
The employment park will be served by new access roads, along with a multitude of footpaths and cycleways connecting throughout Welborne and to adjoining communities. The route of the Bus Rapid Transit will run through Welborne, providing bus services between Welborne, Fareham and other destinations.
Cllr Steve Dugan, Chairman of Fareham Borough Council’s Planning Committee, said: “We are pleased to see the first phase of employment development at Welborne progressing. This approval is an important step in ensuring the infrastructure and opportunities needed to support the new community are delivered in a coordinated way.
“The employment park has been carefully designed to provide space for a variety of jobs for local people and future Welborne residents and paves the way for businesses to come forward with confidence.”
John Beresford, Managing Director, Buckland Development, said: “This is exactly the kind of progress Welborne needs. To build a genuinely successful new community, people need places to work, businesses need room to grow, and local economies need proper long-term foundations.
“Getting the first phase of the employment park approved is a big step forward and it shows Welborne is continuing to move from plan to reality. The employment park will create real jobs, attract serious occupiers and investors, and give more people the chance to live and work in the same community.”
The entire Welborne Garden Village, which will have a pub, health facilities, a hotel, two additional primary schools and a secondary school is expected to be complete by 2046. The first primary school at Welborne is expected to open in September 2028.
Welborne Garden Village is a key project set out in Priority One of Fareham Borough Council’s Corporate Strategy: Provide Housing Choices.