A NEW business park will be built in Bridgwater as plans have now been approved by Somerset Council.

Roselea Properties Limited and C.M. Limited applied in November 2023 to build an 'employment development' comprised of three large buildings along with welfare facilities including associated parking, access, engineering, landscaping and drainage works.

The site will be located on land west of the A38 northbound (Bristol Road), right next to the River Parrett and directly opposite the Ibis Hotel just south of Dunball.

Three industrial buildings will be constructed on the site, with footprints of 12,000, 10,000, and 6,000 square feet respectively.

The plans were approved by Somerset Council on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

The news comes soon after the council confirmed works to upgrade the nearby Dunball Roundabout are set to begin this year.

Once complete, the upgrades should help manage peak time traffic flow, enable growth and development in the area and reduce the likelihood of traffic blocking back on to the motorway in future. 

Regarding the appearance of the new employment park, the application states: "The proposed buildings will be clad in similar materials to the adjacent new buildings and will contain a robust brick plinth element approx. 2.35m high with flush insulated cladding panels above up to eaves level.

"The roofs will be shallow pitched profiled metal sheets approx. 6 degrees, and have rooflights to the warehouse spaces below.

"It is the intention to provide an array of PV roof panels to the east and west pitches of units 2 and 3 and to the southern pitch of unit 1.

"Aerial View from West Doors and windows to the double height feature entranceways will be constructed of aluminium curtain walling with individual punched windows serving offices and the like in aluminium window systems."

At the time of the initial application, a 'prospective user' had already been allocated to take over unit 1, in which the internal layout has been designed to accommodate '2,000 square feet of support and office space with adjacent warehouse/storage space and a further 2,000 square feet of office space at first floor.'

The site will be accessed from the junction on the A38 Northbound (Bristol Road) which currently serves other nearby buildings to the site.

For more information on the application, search for the reference number 09/23/00012 on Somerset Council's online planning portal.