Estates
Review - Oct/Nov 2002
Urban Regeneration - Buckshaw village makes headway
on two fronts Two more milestones have been
passed in the £400 million enterprise to redevelop
the former Ordnance factory at Chorley into a major
business park, new homes and leisure use. The first
phase of remediated land has been handed over to
the developers, Redrow and Barratt, and the initial
stage of commercial development is under way. Remediation
is already complete on about a third of the developable
land within the 395 acre site and construction has
started on the first phase of Matrix Park, comprising
a speculative scheme of four detached industrial
units providing a total floor space of 80,000 sq.
ft. Work has also begun to create the infrastructure
for a whole development, including roads, sewers,
installation of gas, water and electricity, as well
as landscaping.
The former Royal Ordnance factory is one of the
largest brown field sites in the north-west and
was acquired from BAE Systems, whose own environmental
services company has been undertaking the clean-up.
The multi-million remediation programmes should
take about another 12 months to complete. Gordon
Bulloch, general manager of BAE Systems Environmental
Services said: “We're proud to be part of the
team involved in the Buckshaw Village development
that will bring back into beneficial use some 400
acres of regenerated land, invigorating the local
economy and surrounding area. “This was an
innovative approach to the sale of a brownfield
site, in which BAE Systems not only sold the site
in the Redrow-Barratt Consortium with the benefit
of outline planning permission, but included a fixed
price contract to remediate the site and provide
the land from platform for redevelopment."
As
well as launching their first speculative phase,
Redrow Commercial and Barratt Commercial are also
putting in place roads and infrastructure to service
Matrix Park, while agents King
Sturge and DTZ
Debenham Tie Leung have been jointly appointed
to market the site to potential business users.
Iain Robertson, development manager for Redrow Commercial,
says: “We're delighted that Buckshaw Village
is beginning to take shape. The greatest strengths
of the project are its scale, the opportunity to
create a higher quality living and working environment
and the location between two major motorways. The
excellent communication links the site enjoys is
certain to prove a major factor in companies deciding
to base themselves here.”
Buckshaw
Village lies adjacent to junction 28 of the M6 and
close to junction 8 of the M61, just two miles from
Chorley and Leyland and less than 30 miles from
Manchester city centre. Matrix Park will cover an
area of 80 acres, comprising industrial, warehousing
and distribution, offices and leisure uses. In addition
to residential development and commercial and industrial
accommodation, Buckshaw Village will also include
community and sporting facilities. There are proposals
for a primary school, a railway station and a park
and ride scheme, with development due to take place
over the next 10-15 years.
Buckshaw Village Chorley - SUDS Drainage Strategy
Report WW1134
Completed by the University of Abertay Dundee for
The Landscape Trust, August 2000
REPORT
OBJECTIVES: The planned village of Buckshaw involves
a complete redevelopment of the former Royal Ordnance
munitions factory at Chorley. The purpose of this
document is to set out a surface water drainage
strategy for this site on the basis that the former
drainage will be removed and replaced in its entirety.
In developing the strategy, the opportunity may
be taken to incorporate features of Sustainable
urban drainage systems (SUDS) which achieve the
fundamental functions of SUDS drainage systems:
1
Provide the level of flood protection required by
the Environment Agency
2. Maximise the amenity and habitat value of the
built areas within the development.
3. Deliver a surface water drainage system at a
educed cost when compared with a conventional drainage
system
4. Enable ready identification of sources of pollution,
particularly within commercial development areas.
[We
have been requested to point out that the report
linked below has nothing to do with the Buckshaw
Village Consortium and has not been formally accepted
by Redrow or Barratts]
Gilmerton
land Services
"The Royal Ordnance Factory
at Chorley was opened by HM George VI on 31st March
1939 and until 1990 produced explosives and filled
bombs. The factory was hailed the finest civil building
construction in the World, employing 15,000 building
workers to complete it and requiring 20 million
bricks, 1 million cubic yards of concrete (which
required the World's largest concrete mixer 120'
high and turning out 5,000 tons of concrete in one
day) , 50 miles of roads and 25 miles of railway
tracks.
In
1998 British Aerospace started a major decontamination
and demolition programme. Gilmerton Land Services
were chosen to specifically remove all disused underground
services and decommission 14 major substations.
GLS's requirement was to recover 100 miles of disused
power cables and water mains within this programme
and the necessity to identify and retain live services
within the site was of utmost importance. GLS successfully
carried this out, leaving the site infrastructually
tidy under the ground. GLS segregated and marketed
several thousand tons of recovered material."
Buckshaw
Village is a visionary scheme from award winning
property developers Redrow plc and Barratt Developments
plc, representing a £400m investment to
create a new sustainable community in the heart
of Lancashire. The
395 acre site at junction 28 of the M6, near Chorley,
will feature an exciting combination of up to
2,000 new homes, plus employment, shopping and
leisure facilities - creating a highly desirable
living environment. The development of Buckshaw
Village - one of the largest brownfield initiatives
ever undertaken in the North West - will also
generate important employment opportunities for
the area, with a promise of around 5,900 new jobs.
This project is based on the principles of 'sustainable
development' - recycling derelict industrial land
rather than developing a greenfield site, encouraging
alternatives to the private car and reducing the
need for long distance commuting. Work began in
2001 on what is estimated to be a 10 - 15 year
project. The first commercial properties are due
to be available from January 2003.
What
is Buckshaw Village?
Set in the midst of attractive countryside, the
settlement is located just two miles from Chorley
and less than 30 miles from Manchester. Buckshaw
Village benefits from excellent road and rail
connections, lying between the M6 and M61 motorways
with a direct connection to junction 28 of the
M6 and junction 8 of the M61 and with easy access
to the M55, M65 and M62. A new railway station
at Buckshaw Village will serve the Preston - Manchester
(and Manchester Airport) line.
History
of Buckshaw Village
Originally agricultural land, the site was built
in 1939 to accommodate a Royal Ordnance Factory,
where more than 30,000 people were employed to
assemble munitions from World War 2 onwards.
Commercial
Opportunities at Buckshaw Village With
more than 115 acres of land allocated for commercial
development, Buckshaw Village presents an attractive
option for employment, shopping, leisure and commercial
uses. The
North West Business Area, branded as 'Matrix Park',
comprises 81 acres and will be developed into
a high quality business park environment. The
site has potential to cater for some 1.2m sq.ft.
of new floorspace and includes uses such as production,
warehousing and distribution, offices, light industrial
and leisure, which could include a quality hotel
facility.
The consortium are proposing to bring forward
a first phase of speculative development. This
will involve creating the first phase of infrastructure
and construction of four new detached production
units totalling some 86,000 sq.ft. Planning consent
was granted in early 2002.
The greatest strengths of the Buckshaw Village
site are the scale of the scheme, the opportunity
to create a high quality living and working environment
and the location between the two major motorways.
The opportunity on the employment site is to offer
a greater flexibility for the procurement of new
buildings and the high quality living environment
will be the key to securing occupiers. There is
also potential for small-scale commercial uses
within the village itself, such as newsagents,
small convenience store, doctor's surgery, etc.
catering for local demand. Proposals for the southern
commercial sector include a mix of uses such as
residential, offices and shopping, planned around
the new station and park and ride facility.
Enterprises in this area will benefit from the
existing commercial environment south of the railway
line and this includes existing occupiers such
as BAE, CSC Computer Systems and Runshaw College.
To
download arial pictures of the site or a land
use masterplan visit the Redrow website CLICK
HERE
