A £7 million business park in Kendal has been given the green light.
The 6.7-hectare site, north of Meadowbank Business Park on Shap Road, has a waiting list for tenants, according to David Smith, the man behind the plans.
He said the plans had been in the pipeline for almost three years, and now South Lakeland District Council’s planning committee has approved the application.
Mr Smith, managing director of Rayrigg Motors, which was bought out by Lloyd Motor Group earlier this year, said: “It’s been a long, hard road. We have just had to be patient.”
Mr Smith said all the space on the business park had already been claimed by companies and that there was now a waiting list.
The site extends for 50m beyond the development boundary of the town into open countryside. In a report produced ahead of the planning committee meeting, case officer Andrew Martin said the land beyond the boundary provided space for the ‘sustainable disposal’ of surplus topsoil.
He said it provided an ‘enhanced opportunity’ for landscape mitigation and offered ‘the prospect of achieving the required biodiversity net-gain entirely on site’.
Mr Smith added: “There’s got to be an element of elasticity to allow things to progress. If we couldn’t have done what we have done and had the support of planners, effectively the whole thing would have just collapsed and nothing would have happened.”
The submission made was a hybrid application. Full permission was granted for a roundabout off the A6 to support the development, a spine road linked to the roundabout, a Kia motor dealership and a shared access road serving the site. Outline approval was given to the business park.
Despite approval for the motor dealership being granted, it is understood Lloyd Motor Group is looking at options when it comes to a new site. Mr Smith said the space would have to be marketed to other motor companies were Lloyd Motor Group to turn it down.
An earlier version of the plans was approved by the planning committee in October. An amended application was submitted in February 2022 that included the extension of the site beyond the town’s development boundary and the moving further north of the roundabout.
Mr Martin told Thursday’s meeting: “There is an opportunity here to release an important employment allocation and provide some valuable opportunities to local businesses.”
Councillor Susanne Long said: “We very much need an industrial area. We are struggling to find enough area in town for businesses that want to come here.”
The application was given unanimous approval.
