Flagship Gloucestershire Science & Tech Park up for sale
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College has put its flagship Gloucestershire Science & Technology Park at Berkeley Green up for sale.
writes Ian Mean, Business West Gloucestershire director
The sale announcement comes after the government’s Great British Nuclear organisation visited the site recently.
They have also visited the other nearby decommissioned nuclear site at Oldbury in South Gloucestershire as a possible site for the new SMRs-small medium reactors.
Gloucestershire Science & Technology Park was set up in 2016 when the SGS Group purchased the redundant Berkeley site for £3 million from the Nuclear decommissioning Authority.
GFirstLEP-the county’s local enterprise partnership-helped to finance the Park’s early development through a £7 million investment.
Kevin Hamblin, chief executive of SGS told me: “Berkeley Green is a strategic asset to Gloucestershire, but as a college we cannot do anything novel or anything that requires us to borrow money.
“We know that the site needs money put into it for development so the only option we have is to sell the lease to the land”.
The Berkeley site is around 45 acres with just over 50 acres of riverbed on the Severn.
Ten organisations, including the SGS University Technical College(UTC) are housed on the site.
The University Technical College is an initiative to focus on technical education for students between 14-18 years old. They study engineering, digital and cyber.
Just under 400 students are now studying at the UTC which will not be part of the sale.
“These students are working with some of the largest companies in the area and in the UK”, commented Kevin Hamblin.
Simon Bowen, the interim chair of the government’s Great British Nuclear organisation has just been looking at our two decommissioned nuclear sites at Berkeley and Oldbury.
I understand that he is now compiling a short list of six sites for the new mini power stations or SMRs as they are called.
If government choose Rolls Royce to drive the SMR project in Gloucestershire, it could be that they are built on the Oldbury site in South Gloucestershire with a science, research and training centre at Berkeley.
Kevin Hamblin says: “I believe the value of our site is in the possible siting of the SMRs and the industries associated with that development.
“I am really excited by the prospect of the SMRs coming to Gloucestershire—it would be great for the economy of our county and local jobs.”
SGS are now looking for expressions of interest to develop Berkeley by the end of October with final proposals by Christmas.
In 2016 when the SGS Group purchased the redundant Berkeley site from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority the buildings were scheduled for demolition. Over the last 7 yrs SGS, working with partners such as Gfirst LEP, has successfully saved the unique facilities for future generations as Gloucestershire Science & Technology Park. Key milestones have been the delivery of four high quality learning environments; SGS Berkeley Green UTC, C11 Cyber and Low Carbon Centre, Gloucestershire Police's Sabrina Centre and most recently the Active Building Centre Low Carbon training facilities. Many of the older buildings on the park have been invaluable in providing low cost facilities for science and technology businesses and projects, as well as community support.
The GSTP project must now move on to a new phase, where the full potential of the site is realised, bringing all the buildings back into use will require a significant level of capital investment. As a publicly owned FE college we cannot do this on our own, hence we are seeking an investment and development partner who can now lead on the regeneration on the park. This will allow SGS to focus on providing the skills and education that our economy needs for growth and decarbonisation at all our other campuses across the region. SGS are interested in discussing any proposals from interested parties for the next stages of theGSTP project.
