The design partnership behind London’s Brent Cross shopping centre and the Dockland’s wildlife sanctuary at Canada Water have been hired to produce a controversial £1bn development master plan for a Kent airport.
Last autumn Stagecoach bus company co-founder, Ann Gloag, acquired the loss-making Manston Airport for one-pound from former Prestwick owners Infratil. Despite several attempts to keep the airport open it closed in May this year and the millionairess sold a majority stake in the land to regeneration specialist Trevor Cartner and Teesside entrepreneur Chris Musgrave.
Within weeks the pair announced their intention to redevelop the historic 800-acre airfield — used during The Great War first by the Admiralty and then the Royal Flying Corps as an air station — and generate up to 4,000 new jobs. The 20-year scheme would include a mix of commercial, retail and residential projects.
Now the airport’s new owners have commissioned Property consultants GVA and designer Planit Intelligent Environments to work up a master plan for the deserted green-field airport. “We believe we have assembled a first class team to deliver high quality plans for the site,” said Musgrave who was behind the successful Wynyard Park in County Durham.
“The master plan will take approximately eight months to develop, and following this we’ll be seeking feedback through a full period of public consultation.”
Musgrave and Cartner have a proven track record in delivering commercial development projects. As well as owning the 700-acre Wynyard Park they also owned Discovery Park, a 220-acre science and technology scheme nine miles from Manston at Sandwich.
“We are aware that there were a number of job losses when the airport closed and a far greater number will replace these, and that the benefits will reach the whole of east Kent,” added Musgrave. “We will assemble a first-class team to produce and deliver high quality plans for the site.”
The development plans are likely to include production and warehousing space, which will meet a current shortage of space in Thanet for companies to grow and expand. It is also intended to complement the Discovery Park where there has been a 50 per cent take-up of space and where recent demand for large production and warehousing requirements has fallen due to the lack of suitable accommodation.
Whatever the design team produce the redevelopment scheme has already been condemned by Thanet North MP, Sir Roger Gale. He branded the sell-on as sounding “remarkably like opportunist land-banking” and warned he would oppose any plans to create industrial premises and housing on the site.
Planit Intelligent Environments provided urban design and visual impact planning for the transformation of the pair’s Discovery Park from its former use as Pfizer pharmaceutical’s European headquarters.
The company’s biggest success, however, was the creation of Canada Water, a freshwater lake and wildlife refuge in Rotherhithe in south-east London. Its website claims: “By blending art, science and an innate understanding of the relationship between people and the environments they inhabit, our Landscape Architects create spaces that truly enhance the experience of those who live, work, learn and play among them.”
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