London Road Industrial Estate Regeneration Project
Regeneration plans for the area adjacent to Newbury town centre
Newbury London Road Estate
Regeneration of the Council-owned London Road Industrial Estate (LRIE) in Newbury is part of our strategic commitment to deliver local infrastructure to support and grow the local economy. You can find out more about our strategic commitments in the Council Strategy.
Vision
The delivery of a mixed-use site that delivers economic growth, an improved local environment within which to work, travel and live, and provides effective links to the town centre.
Approved by Executive on 17 December 2020
Current Position
We are in the process of taking the next steps of planning how the estate will look and feel through continuous partnership working with local businesses, researching market demand and consciously working towards the district's ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Consultants, Avison Young, were appointed in 2019 to draw up a development brief for the site with residents' views sought on the draft in the autumn of 2020. The final development brief, which sets out development options for the site based on a mix of commercial and residential uses, was approved by the Council's Executive in November 2020.
Subsequently, in December 2020, the Executive agreed development objectives for the site and appointed specialist consultants to bring it forward. During 2021 and early 2022, despite the Covid pandemic, the consultants delivered a high-level Environmental Report to explore concerns raised during the public consultation and carried out soft market testing with potential development partners.
In the meantime, in December 2021, we opened the former Faraday Road football ground to the public as temporary public sports and recreation space pending its redevelopment.
The results of the LRIE review are expected to be considered by the Council's Executive at its meeting on 9 June 2022.
Cllr Ross Mackinnon, Executive Member for Finance and Economic Development at West Berkshire Council, said:
"Our aspirations for the LRIE are very clear - it is an employment site that supports many local jobs and businesses, and its regeneration must be economic development led. Much has changed during the past few years, and we need to be ready to grasp opportunities when they arise, particularly where they align with our ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2030.
"We've been talking extensively to key employers on the LRIE site about their future plans and reviewing current economic drivers, as well as taking on board the results of work commissioned from our consultants, which includes the high level Environmental Report and soft market testing.
"The LRIE has the potential to deliver a range of economic, employment and environmental benefits for Newbury and the wider district. I'm really looking forward to sharing both the results of our review and our new strategy for delivering those benefits with local residents and stakeholders in the very near future."
Useful links
- A public consultation on the draft Development Brief took place between 9 September and 20 October 2020. You can view the consultation documents, feedback and decision on our consultation portal
- The final version of the
LRIE Development Brief [11Mb] was approved by Executive at a meeting on 19 November 2020. - The development objectives and next steps for delivery were approved by Executive on 17 December 2020.
- LRIE Environmental Appraisal Report Summary [1Mb]
Frequently Asked Questions
The London Road Industrial Estate has been the subject of many public questions submitted to our Executive. These are published as Questions and Answers alongside the minutes for each meeting, which are available through our Executive meetings browser. We have summarised these below:
- FAQs on LRIE Environmental Report [256kb]
- FAQs on Environmental issues [211kb]
- FAQs on existing occupiers [193kb]
History
The regeneration of the London Road Industrial Estate has been a council aspiration since publication of the 2003 Newbury Vision. It has remained a fixed item within all subsequent publications of the Newbury Vision.
Our previous attempt to bring forward regeneration with a development partner failed due to legal action brought against and fought unsuccessfully by the council between 2015 and 2018. You can find out more about this in FAQ's about the project up to 2018 [96kb] and Commentary on the Faraday Case (12 February 2019) [89kb].
The creation of a new road junction on the A339 is a key part of the regeneration project and this scheme was completed in April 2017. You can find out more about this scheme at Strategic Economic Plan (SEP)
The £4m-scheme was part-funded by the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
You can see a video of the new junction below. (This video has no audio).
Who to contact
For general media enquiries, please contact our Public Relations Team.
For specific enquiries about the London Road Industrial Estate regeneration project overall, please contact the Manager - Special Projects.
For enquiries about any element of planning related to this project, please contact Planning Policy.