Stevenage: £40m logistics facility given planning permission

The five-acre site in Pin Green had been earmarked for a new Morrisons supermarket, but those plans were scrapped in April before property developers Fiera Real Estate and Wrenbridge bought the plot in June.

At a meeting on Tuesday (October 29), they were given the green light to demolish an existing warehouse – previously used by Bond International but currently empty – and replace it with a new 10,824 square metre building on the corner of Wedgwood Way and Cartwright Road.

The existing building on the proposed site. (Image: Stevenage Borough Council) 108 car parking spaces are included in the plans, as well as 18 spaces for lorries. The developers said they want to “attract a range of occupiers” including light industrial, manufacturing, storage and distribution.

They expect the facility to create up to 300 jobs, which they said would be a “significant economic benefit” for a site that had been “under utilised for several years” and for a town where, they said, there is a “shortfall” of “employment space”.

But Jill Borcherds, speaking on behalf of Cycling UK Stevenage, warned councillors that the site lacked cycling infrastructure and that changes to Wedgwood Way would be “essential”.

A council officer said that the application to build a Morrisons on the site had included a “series of improvements” to the road, but that this had been negotiated given the expected amount of traffic to and from the site.

How the Morrisons supermarket previously proposed for the site could have looked. (Image: Whittam Cox/Stevenage Borough Council) She said it would not be “proportionate or reasonable” to ask the site’s new developer for similar off-site work.

Cllr Rob Broom asked council officers if it would be possible to consider reducing speed limits on Wedgwood Way to make it safer for cyclists, while Cllr Forhad Chowdhury echoed safety concerns.

But officers said that Hertfordshire Highways had raised no objections to the application, and had not suggested making changes to the nearby roads.

Zayd Al-Jawad, assistant director for planning at the council, said: “It’s not that we don’t recognise … that there is a lack of cycling provision there, and it would potentially be a dangerous space for some people to ride.

“[But] in terms of the impact of this development, we don’t feel we can ask for it. We don’t feel it would be justifiable to require a cycle route or a contribution towards a cycle route.”

Cllr Coleen Houlihan raised a nearby “popular” Beryl bike bay, which she worried would be lost completely, while Cllr Peter Clark suggested the new facility could include a bay on the site.

Mr Al-Jawad said the existing Beryl bay would be moved somewhere nearby, and added the bike hire scheme had not been in place when the proposal was put forward.