Business Information

A regionally strategic project

The former RAF Locking Training School is being developed to provide a range of high-quality business opportunities, supported by a new Business Incubation Centre.

A superb location

Locking Parklands has excellent motorway connections, located just two miles from junction 21 of the M5 motorway. Bristol International Airport is only 16 miles away and 2.2m people live within one hour’s drive of the site. An estimated 20,000 people within the working population of Weston-super-Mare currently commute to jobs outside the area; Locking Parklands aims to go some way to solving the lack of employment opportunities in the area.

Business Incubation Centres

These are shared premises, designed to help small to medium-sized companies develop and grow. They provide a supportive business environment including modern premises, high-capacity IT connectivity, business mentoring and entrepreneurial networking. Business Incubation Centres have an average company start-up success rate of 98%, compared to the national average of less than 50%.

Business and research networks

The Bristol city region is already attracting a significant number of relocations and it is estimated that an extra half a million people will move into the area by 2016. Four universities are located nearby with world-class research facilities, especially in fields such as biotechnology, pharmacy, chemistry, nanotechnology, quantum computing, applied mathematics and engineering. The South West has one of the fastest growing economies in the UK with GDP increasing at a greater rate than most other regions, and it has already attracted many market-leading companies such as HP and Orange.

Availability

Organisations have already been expressing an interest in moving to the site and the first high-tech employer, Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology Ltd, has selected Locking Parklands for a 5,000 sq m site housing around 200 jobs.

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Premises will be available for occupation from 2008, along with serviced sites for direct occupier development.

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