Prime Staffordshire site gets ready for business development

Another Staffordshire site will be soon ready for business development with work to provide its access on schedule for a spring completion.

The county council is working with Bericote Properties to provide improved access to the site at Four Ashes, South Staffordshire. Completion of the project is on schedule for late spring, meaning the site will be ready for major business development.

It is another project backed by the Government’s Local Growth Fund, with £1.91million allocated by the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Enterprise Partnership. When completed, the 52-acre site could provide more than 900,000 square feet of industrial floor space, potentially creating up to 1,080 jobs.

Work started in November last year and involves improving Gravelly Way off the A449 – which was too narrow with no lighting or pavements. The team is now working to reconstruct and widen the road, build new pavements and install lighting to provide safe and suitable access to industrial traffic. In addition, it will be installing signals on the Gravelly Way railway bridge. The project is on schedule to be completed at the end of May.

Staffordshire County Council leader Philip Atkins said: “Our project at Bericote Four Ashes is progressing well – opening up the site for major development soon. It is another scheme which has had the backing of the Government’s Local Growth Fund and another example of how we’re delivering on time and on budget to boost local growth. Bericote Four Ashes is in a prime location close to the A449, M54 and M6 so this and its newly improved accessibility will be a big draw for leading businesses. We hope to announce development on site soon.”

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Enterprise Partnership chairman David Frost said: “We are delighted to see that our ambitions to create more and better jobs benefitting local communities are taking shape on the ground at Bericote Four Ashes. It is clear that Staffordshire is proving to be an increasingly attractive location for businesses both to locate and grow. The availability of great sites such as Four Ashes, our central location in the UK and a skilled labour force are an unbeatable combination.”

The first Local Growth Fund project undertaken by the county council on behalf of the local enterprise partnership was at Liberty Park in Lichfield. The project involved building a new bridge over the West Coast Mainline and improving the access road to the site. Plans have now been submitted for three speculative units at Liberty Park.