Decision due on Business Park
24 July 2009
Updated plans for a £30M business park in Yeovil are due to go before a planning committee this month. Developers behind Bunford Park are hoping to persuade South Somerset District Council to approve the outline application for what they describe as "Yeovil's premier business park".
The project aims to create 600,000 square feet of employment floor space, 40 acres of landscaped parks and up to 5,000 jobs to the west of the A3088 Western Relief Road.
When the plan came before district councillors in November last year, they deferred the decision to allow time to iron out concerns about access.
There were fears that vehicles travelling to and from the park could bring the rest of the town to a standstill.
The amended access and roundabout improvements were revealed at a Town Council meeting on Monday. They include proposals to upgrade the Westlands/Cartgate and Lysander Road roundabouts and install traffic lights, a "throughabout" that is a lane cutting through a roundabout to reduce traffic flow with a walkway for pedestrians and cyclists, and a new access to the development off the Western Relief Road by way of a filter lane with a traffic light junction.
Jason Mills, managing director of developers Abbey Manor Capital Partners, said the highways changes were designed to reduce traffic build-up at the site's access and make crossing the roundabout safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
"This is Yeovil's premier business location and if you look at all of the other trading estates in Yeovil they have all grown up on a piecemeal basis with no masterplan. We are creating a high quality business park destination to rival those already located in Exeter or Taunton.”
Plans for the changes have been approved in principle by Somerset County Council highways department, subject to a number of conditions. The application will go before the planning committee of South Somerset District Council on Wednesday 5 August.
[Edited from a longer article that appeared in full on 24 July 2009]