Locking Parklands was allocated for 25ha of employment development within the
Replacement Local Plan, however St Modwen and the HCA believe that the site should be
brought forward in a mixed use nature rather than single use blocks of development. We
therefore support the expectation within the policy that, employment development will be
delivered alongside infrastructure improvements, as part of mixed use sites, or as part of
wider regeneration initiatives to 'unlock' sites for development in the short to medium term of
the plan period.
As noted previously, the HCA supports the employment led approach for Weston. However,
we seek clarification on the mechanisms to be used to secure delivery of employment
development early in the plan period. We believe that proposals need to be brought forward
in a mixed use nature to facilitate the required infrastructure, thereby creating available
serviced employment land ready for occupiers with the benefit of planning permission. As
noted above commercial reality (exacerbated by current market conditions) means that
speculative building of commercial floorspace is very unlikely.
The expected approach to deliver 1.5 B use class jobs per new home, in addition to the
opportunities presented by non B use class jobs is noted by the HCA, however, we are
concerned that implementation of such a rigid approach may preclude some schemes from
coming forward which would still provide valuable employment opportunities. We have also
previously raised concerns regarding the Council's approach to calculating the number of
jobs per home (refer to Chapter 5 of Planning Statement in support of the Locking Parklands
Phase One Application). GVA Grimley's research for the SWRDA indicates that nearly 58%
of jobs within the South West are within non-B use classes. Therefore, if you add this to the B
class jobs, it equates to 2.4 jobs per dwelling which is not achievable, especially when
compared to the average household occupancy rate (including children, OAPS etc) of 2.3
used by the Council to determine planning obligations for open space etc. We therefore seek
some flexibility within the policy wording on this issue.