The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has agreed to part finance a £10m eco-friendly office scheme at one of Britain’s regional airports.
Doncaster International Business Park — adjacent to the town’s Robin Hood Airport — is being developed in two stages by the Prospect Property Group (PPG) and is expected to create more than 100 jobs when complete. Totalling 62,000 sq ft, the scheme is made up of 41 “work pod” offices ranging in size from 1,450 to 1,600 sq ft.
Claiming the development “breaks new ground in all sorts of ways”, Richard Burns, PPG’s strategic director, added: “The green credentials of the work pods are second to none and we are raising the bar for office accommodation with the sustainability, flexibility and impressively low running costs of these office units.”
With construction starting within weeks, the each office pod is designed around a “fabric first” approach to energy efficiency, using the structure of the building to retain heat.
“With super-high insulation, absolute air-tightness, and large windows and roof lights to harvest the sun’s energy, the office units will retain maximum heat inside the buildings,” Burns explained.
PPG has yet to announce an agent for the scheme, but has already received a number of enquiries from small businesses that have outgrown their incubator space and are searching for expansion sites.
Construction of the new link road from the M18 motorway to Robin Hood Airport is already underway, and with Doncaster iPort about to become Yorkshire’s largest rail freight terminal, the area is expanding fast. “This project is indicative of the forward-looking and joined-up approach to regeneration that we are striving for in Doncaster,” commented Bob Johnson, Doncaster Council’s cabinet member for regeneration. “It delivers both new jobs and quality sustainable business space.”
Securing ERDF funding is an exhaustive process, he added, “and proves the credentials of Doncaster International Business Park as a long-term asset to the South Yorkshire economy”.
Across the Pennines in Lancashire, Blackpool airport is the second UK regional airport to close this year and looks set to join Manston in Kent — which ended flights in May — to be targeted by mixed-use developers.
After the accountancy group, Zolfo Cooper, failed to find a buyer it has now been appointed
liquidator by Blackpool Airport owner Balfour Beatty. The closure of the loss-making airport, which cost 110 full time jobs, is being blamed on an “extremely onerous” contract with the budget airline Jet2.
“Perhaps the best long-term prospect for the area, and to safeguard employment around the airport, is to make it an enterprise zone like BAE Systems enjoys at Warton,” said Blackpool North MP Paul Maynard, who confirmed he had already written to the Chancellor suggesting the proposal.
Fylde MP Mark Menzies, in whose constituency the airport stands, has taken the opposite view. He has also written to various Government ministers — demanding the Squires Gate airport be protected from commercial development. “I made it clear that under no circumstances would I support this land being sold for commercial or residential development as airport runways are strategic national assets and should be protected,” he said.
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