TEWKESBURY: THE NEW POWERHOUSE FOR GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Ian Mean examines the town’s ambitions

It’s difficult to believe but over the next 20 years Tewkesbury could be home to more than 12,000 new jobs.

How has the growth of this town –always something of a hidden gem in terms of the strength of its companies – become a reality? Answer: vision and planning developed by Tewkesbury Borough Council and Gloucestershire County Council acting in unison.

Gloucestershire is in dire need of employment land and Tewkesbury has that, as well as land for the new homes needed to attract young families.

The projections for new jobs and homes here are staggering, and I truly believe they will develop the Tewkesbury area into a new powerhouse for Gloucestershire.

My view is shared by Mike Dawson, Chief Executive of Tewkesbury Borough Council – a blunt Lancastrian who gets things done.

“Tewkesbury is growing and driving growth in the county,” Mike told me.

“I believe that at the minute, Gloucestershire is on the verge of a lot of good things, and Tewkesbury is truly set to become the county’s powerhouse.”

So, what are the key drivers of this enormous growth plan?

First and foremost is the new Tewkesbury Garden Town, planned to be developed just two miles from the old town centre, near Ashchurch off the A46. Here 10,000 new homes could be built and it is set become the biggest strategic housing site in Gloucestershire.

According to ONS figures, in 2019 Tewkesbury Borough was officially the fastest growing local authority area outside London. And around 30 per cent of all Gloucestershire’s housing growth to 2031 is in the borough. Pro rata, that’s about twice as much as an equal share would be between the six district councils of the county.

And tied in with those new homes would be employment land – probably about 100 hectares – to provide the new jobs.

Financed by government and development partners’ cash, the new garden town is a long-term project and will cost millions of pounds. To realise its ambitions, Tewkesbury Borough Council will need all the government help it can get because it only turns over about £19 million a year.

“The prep work for this is going to take some years,” said Mike. “We plan to set out key planning principles and controls on the new roads and the infrastructure.

“These will not be any old houses –they will be well designed with high standards of carbon neutrality.

“We believe that 8,000 to 10,000 jobs could be created for the garden town. Our aim is to try and find about 100 hectares of employment land – that’s a lot of employment land, which will be close to where families will live.”

Major road infrastructure will be needed to serve the new garden town, and Gloucestershire County Council’s Executive Director of Economy, Environment and Infrastructure Colin Chick, is battling to convince Highways England that a new junction 9 needs to be developed about two miles down the M5 from the current junction.

This new junction to service the new town and link up with the A46 could cost £350 million.

The aim is also to provide a new route across the Midlands for the A46, and by doing so take pressure off the Birmingham traffic box with roads like the M42.

While this infrastructure is long-term, Tewkesbury is getting a big boost to the local economy with the current development of the Designer Outlet Cotswolds just off junction 9 of the M5 and fronting the A46. Robert Hitchins, the Cheltenham property developer, says it will open in 2022.

The 180-acre site will feature up to 90 shops, restaurants and cafes, the largest Dobbies garden centre in South West England and 850 homes complete with a school, local centre and recreation facilities.

Currently 1.9 million people visit the borough every year and when the new outlet centre opens, it could well become a new Bicester for our region, and that number will rise.

Manufacturing drives Tewkesbury’s growth ambitions

It surprised me to learn that more than 23 per cent of people in the Tewkesbury area are employed in manufacturing, with major aerospace companies such as Safran, GE Aviation and Dowty Propellers located in the borough.

The quality of the businesses here and the ambitions they have for growth are impressive. Moog and its current growth plans seem to me to epitomise that excellence. This is an amazing global company which currently employs 463 people in Tewkesbury.

The company operates from two sites close to Ashchurch station delivering high performance niche applications such as aircraft controls and precision control components and systems.

The company is also developing a new £40 million aerospace manufacturing and design facility. The 184,000 sq ft centre of excellence for Moog’s Aircraft Controls Segment will be built on a 10-acre site, the former Trelleborg site at Ashchurch, Tewkesbury. It is due to open in 2023.

Mike Dawson is spot on when he says he would like to see Tewkesbury become a centre of engineering excellence.

We have a great heritage of advanced manufacturing in the county and with new families expected to come as the housing stock grows, it will provide a real magnet to keep them in Gloucestershire.

And on top of that, it would be good to see the University of Gloucestershire develop an advanced manufacturing campus in Tewkesbury to encourage these skills.

I am not trying to say that Tewkesbury is like the Northern Powerhouse or our Western Gateway political partnership, I am simply saying these are exciting times for the growth of Tewkesbury and Gloucestershire.

And as Mike Dawson told me: “There are many people in Gloucestershire who would rather wrap it in aspic, but if you don’t grow, you go backwards”