Normanton Industrial Estate Extension

Wakefield

We prepared an outline planning application and EIA for a major distribution park on the M62. The project involved complex issues of land ownership and an inability to survey areas of the application site.

Location: Wakefield
Status: On site
Size: 94 Ha comprising 1.5m sqft of Distribution, and 230,000 sqft of office accommodation and a new link road
Scale: Urban extension

Normanton is a recent permission for a major distribution and employment park. We were instructed not long after the key "Rochdale" decisions which set a new working methodology for environmentally assessing outline applications. To respond to the new EIA process we devised parameters for assessing the development and co-ordinated a large multi-disciplinary team of 10 specialist consultants. We also undertook specialist assessment work on need, alternatives, sustainability and cultural heritage.

The EIA process was challenging as a land owner controlling half of the application site was not willing to allow the developers to survey for protected species, although detailed negotiations and interpretation of case law resulted in the removal of English Nature objections.

The outline permission was approved and in the scheme is now almost fully detailed and the first occupiers have recently purchased buildings.