Green light for eco business park

Planning consent was last night granted to economic development company Sea Space for the first of its Enviro21 Innovation Parks - a series of ‘green’ business parks on the outskirts of Hastings and Bexhill on the East Sussex coast.

The Enviro21 Innovation Parks are being designed to be environmentally exemplary in the way they are built and energy efficient in the way they operate. They are being developed to attract businesses at the forefront of the fast-growing environmental technologies sector, as well as other firms seeking to minimise their ecological impact.

The Innovation Parks are to be clustered around the area’s A21 main road toward London and the proposed Link Road between Hastings and Bexhill. The planning consent approved this week by Hastings Borough Council is for the first of these business parks at Sea Space’s 3.77-hectare Queensway South site on the north-west outskirts of Hastings. The scheme is designed by a team led by award-winning architects RH Partnership and sustainability advisors Peter Brett Associates.

The planning consent for Queensway South is for seven two-storey units representing 85,000 sq ft of business space, with a planning application for further space on the site to follow.

The scheme is designed to make best use of natural resources and the latest renewable energy technologies. The buildings will be naturally ventilated and benefit from high levels of natural daylight. They will be built with ‘green’ materials of low embodied energy and high recycled content - for example, walls made from Hemcrete as a carbon negative, thermally-efficient alternative to traditional masonry. Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), shingle ‘brown’ roofs and biomass boilers are all part of the scheme’s environmental strategy. The development will also encourage sustainable transport methods, including a cycle/pedestrian route as well as changing and showering facilities within each unit.

Sea Space intends to follow this planning consent with the submission of a planning application for The Innovation Exchange on the Queensway South site. As a conference, exhibition and interpretive centre promoting best environmental practice, The Innovation Exchange will provide meeting rooms, conference and seminar facilities and a restaurant for the area’s businesses and wider community.

Sea Space proposes to create the next Enviro21 Innovation Park on the adjoining Queensway North site. The organisation is also developing plans for a wind turbine which should generate more than enough energy to power both sites, with the surplus to be sold to generate additional economic development income.

This week’s planning consent coincides with confirmation of £7M funding from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) for development of the Queensway South Enviro21 Innovation Park.

John Shaw, Project Director at Sea Space, comments: “The Queensway South Innovation Park is at the cutting edge of environmental business developments. When we undertook research amongst companies across the south east, they told us loud and clear that they place extremely high importance on being green, but simply aren’t achieving it with their current premises. We’ve set out to turn that problem around.”

Shaw continues: “We’re starting construction of the access roads at Queensway South straight away. Along with all the office and education development that’s well under way in the town centre, this is rapidly changing the face of Hastings as a dynamic business location.”

For more information and images, please contact Tariq Khwaja from TK Associates on 07833 336 271 or tariq.khwaja@tk-associates.com

Thursday, 22nd May, 2008