Gloucester’s road infrastructure has been given a boost as a consortium of house builders has handed over valuable cash to help provide vital additional public transport in the city and to help foot the multi-million pound bill for the building of the long awaited, Gloucester South-West Bypass, which opens next April.
The cash comes for this comes from the Quedgeley Urban Village Limited (QUVL) consortium, which is developing Kingsway, the new exciting homes, jobs and leisure destination to the south of the city. The development is located on the A38 on land that previously formed the one-time RAF Quedgeley Maintenance Depot.
The QUVL consortium consists of four development companies: George Wimpey, Taylor Woodrow, Persimmon and Cheltenham-based commercial developer Robert Hitchins. Six other leading developers are now building on Kingsway – Kings Oak, Barratt, Bloor, David Wilson and Laing.
Explains Project Manager David Sanderson, "Quedgeley Urban Village Ltd has just handed over a sum of just under £9m as the contribution it pledged towards the new South West Bypass, which opens next spring. There will also be payments towards public transport and sustainable transport initiatives to be made of around £3m over the next few years. These payments were negotiated as part of the planning permission granted to QUVL to develop Kingsway. By next spring the current delays in getting into Gloucester from Quedgeley and the south should be a thing of the past."
Adds QUVL chairman Andrew Hill, "The Kingsway scheme is very much a part of the overall urban regeneration of the City. QUVL and the County Council have negotiated to bring forward the date for this payment and QUVL’s total contribution of £12m clearly highlights the advantage the whole city is deriving from development of Kingsway"
Planning consent was granted for 2,650 homes by the Secretary of State in 2003. Construction of the first phase of 1,000 homes at Kingsway is well under way with some 150 now occupied. Demolition and remediation work is proceeding at pace to open up land for the second phase of 1,000 homes. In addition, there’s news of plans for an additional 650 homes which will bring the total to 3,300 and discussions are underway with the City Council planners. This would take the overall provision of affordable houses to about 1,000.
There is also to be an employment area at Kingsway, which will be developed by Robert Hitchins Ltd, and early next year a new and growing business community will start to take shape. On a site of approximately 40 acres, a range of business properties will be developed in a variety of sizes covering offices, light industrial and warehouses. There will also be opportunities for premises to be developed to suit occupiers’ requirements.
As this process will evolve over several years, a number of existing buildings will be kept for the medium term so that there is continuity of employment on the Kingsway site as it undergoes this transformation.
A wide range of facilities is also planned for the Local Centre. The master plan for this vital area of Kingsway is currently being finalised with the Planners and will be unveiled this autumn. Outline permission has already been granted for a range of shops, including a small food store, a health centre and community facilities.