Somerset’s newest ‘enterprise zone’ could have its own railway station once it is fully operational.

The former Royal Ordinance site, between the villages of Puriton and Woolavington near Bridgwater, is being transformed into the Gravity hub for businesses.

Work began in the summer on the £10.3M access road linking the site to the A39 and Junction 23 of the M5.

Now Sedgemoor District Council has borrowed £150,000 to help pay for a study on whether a new rail connection would be viable.

The loan was approved by the council’s executive committee when it met in Bridgwater on Wednesday morning (December 4).

Stuart Houlet, the council’s service manager for development management, said the rail feasibility study was part of a wider effort by This Is Gravity Ltd to make the “smart campus” as green as possible.

He said in his written report: “One of the aspirations is to reactivate a rail connection to the site to provide a car-free commute to the site and improve rail connectivity to and from Bristol and Exeter, along with rail freight capability.

“This is Gravity Ltd has already engaged with Network Rail and commissioned a study to explore the possibility of reinstating the railway line and linking it to the Exeter-Bristol line.

“The work has been estimated at £400,000-£500,000 and is currently being financed by the site owner.”

The council has borrowed the money from the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and will be paid back in two instalments, interest-free, by March 2023.

The council gets to keep all business rates raised from the Gravity site, and will use these to repay the loan to the LEP.

Mr Houlet said work on the feasibility study was “progressing well” and the outcome would be known by the autumn of 2020.

He added: “The ambition is to attract foreign inward investment from clean tech industries.

“Having an operating rail link that feeds into the Exeter-Bristol corridor with its workforce and talent, and a connection to Bristol port and the wider freight rail network, is a major selling point.”

The site is expected to eventually be home to up to 150 businesses with around 4,000 employees being based on site.