Car-use limits threaten Yeovil project

February 2010

A major business park proposal in Yeovil, Somerset, could be scrapped due to measures to restrict the use of private vehicles.

The scheme to build the £30m 40-acre Bunford Park could create up to 6,000 jobs but is threatened due to a green travel plan from Somerset County Council.

Limiting the use of cars to and from the site might "totally compromise" the scheme, said developer Abbey Manor Capital Partners. This imitative to cut car use would see Somerset County Council levy a cash bond on the development of up to £200,000.

The money would be paid back to the developer after five years if targets aimed at minimising car use were met. However, if people drove to work at the park, then the county council would spend the money on encouraging other forms of transport. The council said that the scheme was "not a tax or fine" but a financial sanction to encourage alternatives to using a car.

The site is next to one of Yeovil's busiest routes from the M5 through Dorset and the south coast

Jason Mills, managing director of Abbey Manor Capital Partners, said the planning application had reached an impasse. "This green travel plan issue is now directly frustrating the unlocking of the Bunford Park section 106 agreement and hence delivery of Yeovil's identified key strategic employment site. We are concerned that such a strategic project appears to have been held to ransom by the county council".

Mills said that businesses moving onto the site would eventually bear the brunt of the penalty and may seek to relocate. He added that it was not clear how such a sanction would be monitored or enforced.

The council warned that if sanctions were not used now future transport solutions would fall on taxpayers.