£100 million-plus A96 Barmuckity Business Park for Moray
AN ambitious planning application submitted this week to the Moray Council by Barmuckity Business Park Limited signals twenty years of economic growth for Elgin and potential relief from A96 through traffic congestion for the city.
The joint venture between landowner Ian Robertson and Moray-based developer Springfield Properties proposes a 128-acre state-of-the-art business park on the A96 to the east of Elgin at Barmuckity Farm that will cost more than £100 million to develop and offers the opportunity to establish a line for the Elgin Bypass.
A proposed roundabout to the east of Barmuckity Farm will be the first on the new bypass which is anticipated to rejoin the Inverness side of the A96 west of Aldroughty Farm.
Commenting on the pre-application discussions with Moray Council and Transport Scotland, Springfield chairman Sandy Adam said: "There was a positive response to our ideas for a bypass running to the south of Elgin and starting at the main entrance to the park."
The carbon neutral development will be laid out in zones including hotel and leisure, public and private sector office, commercial, starter business, storage and industrial.
At this stage the application deals only with roads, general layout and landscaping including a large loch feature. The company is already in talks with clients and hopes to submit building applications before the end of the year.
The scarcity of land for business use in Elgin, which will be compounded by land take for flood alleviation, means there is pent up and growing demand. With Springfield's planned infrastructure in place Elgin will be well positioned to attract businesses from further afield as the economy improves.
Awareness of the strategic importance of the park is uppermost at Springfield according to managing director John Main: "The park will form the main gateway to the city from the east and we are keen to ensure that it is developed in a sympathetic and sustainable way. Our aim is to create a worker friendly business campus fit for the needs of the public and private sectors at local and national level."
Over the next 20 years the business park could generate more than 4000 jobs. |
