Business park could mean more jobs

The Hunterford Trust wants to build more than 22,000sq m of industrial space on part of the former airfield.

Its outline planning application to Arun District Council envisages 31 units of varying sizes for general business and storage and distribution purposes. Two office blocks will also be built. A total of 446 parking spaces will be provided. A statement by chartered surveyors Tod Millar Thomas with the proposal says the new business park would fulfil a need for modern accommodation in the area.

Some of its clients had been waiting for more than two years to find suitable space. Five local companies had expressed a long-term interest in moving to the new business park.

Its list of inquiries for business space in the Arun district stands at 106. These include 68 industrial and 38 office users.

The user mix between the industrial inquiries was split roughly equally between light and general industrial and storage uses.

'...although inquiries from the storage and distribution sector are markedly on the increase due, in the main, to increased demand from internet-based distribution companies and their suppliers,' explains Tod Miller Thomas.

More interest was also being expressed in moving to Ford from companies west of Worthing than previously because the business estates in Arun were perceived to have better access and offer better value.

'The market is considered by most commentators and indeed, locally based occupiers that we speak to, to be starved of good quality modern light industrial, general industrial and warehousing stock,' the company states.

The proposed site of almost seven hectares, the south and east of the former runways, is next to a waste recycling centre which has been granted planning permission.

A study supplied by The Hunterford Trust says no significant traffic or safety concerns will be caused by vehicles serving the planned business park.