Building work will soon be underway on the new school planned for Kingsway, Gloucestershire’s major homes, jobs and leisure destination.
The plans for the project have now been submitted for planning approval and the selection process for the contractor has now begun. The new school is being constructed on a site at the heart of the Kingsway development, which is located on the one-time RAF Maintenance depot on the A38, just south of Gloucester. The school should be completed towards the end of next year.
The money to pay for the two-entry primary school has been provided by the QUVL consortium of house builders. The consortium consists of four development companies: George Wimpey, Taylor Woodrow, Persimmon and Cheltenham-based commercial developer Robert Hitchins.
Explains Project Manager David Sanderson, ‘A provision of £6.6m is being made to build a new primary school actually on Kingsway and also as a contribution towards secondary education provision in the city.
The money being made available for secondary education will be spent on extra provision on secondary schools directly serving the south Gloucester area, which will include the new Kingsway development. The payments were part of the planning permission given to QUVL to develop on Kingsway.”
Adds QUVL chairman Andy Hill, “This is obviously excellent news for Gloucester. The Kingsway scheme is very much a part of the exciting overall urban regeneration of the neighbouring city area, which is being energetically undertaken with considerable Government backing by the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company. This provision clearly highlights the great advantage the whole city is deriving from development of Kingsway.”
The QUVL consortium is also providing £1.4m in funds towards public transport improvements and over £9m towards building the long awaited, much talked about, Gloucester South-West Bypass.
Already some 550 homes are now occupied on Kingsway. Demolition work is now underway to open up land for a further 2,000 homes on the development and work on the homes on the up-and-coming second and third phases of Kingsway is now getting underway.
The plans for the Local Centre on Kingsway have also been finalised, with its construction completed by the end of 2008. The centre will contain shops, a community centre, a health centre, a place of worship as well as a pub/restaurant and café.
There is also to be an employment area of 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 many years, a number of existing buildings will be kept for medium term so that there is continuity of employment on the Kingsway site as it undergoes this transformation.