Insurance and financial services company, Canada Life, has agreed to forward fund Turnstone Estates £65 million leisure development in Colchester’s Northern Gateway. As part of the deal Colchester Borough Council has taken an over-riding lease on the scheme with a full buy-back of the Leisure Park at the end of the term for £1. This will allow the council to manage future leisure provision within the town with outright ownership after 35 years.
Image credit: Colchester Borough Council
A multi-million-pound bid by the ‘We Are Colchester’ group has been submitted to the Government to fund several projects around the town .
At the start of 2020, Colchester was chosen as one of 101 towns across the country that could apply for up to £25 million from the Government’s Town Deal Fund.
Image: HAT Projects
The Churchmanor Estates company plc recently construction of the commenced the £60m Stane Retail Park in Tollgate Colchester with completion of the project set for September 2021.
As part of the construction works Churchmanor are spending £2.6million on improvements to the Eight Ash Green A12 roundabout with a new four way traffic signal junction and the widening of the Western Bypass to two lanes between Essex Yeomanry Way and the Sainsbury’s roundabout.
The scheme of 173,000sqft comprises of new stores for B&Q, Marks & Spencer Food Hall and Aldi with the balance of the space set for additional retailers.
Image credit: Churchmanor Estates
More than 21,000 jobs could be created over the next 30 years across North Essex as a result of proposed Garden Communities, leading economic consultants have said.
Assessing the economic impact as part of new Local Plan evidence set to go before the Planning Inspector later this year, the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) has set out how, with the right investment, the Garden Communities can play a major role in boosting the North Essex economy through the provision of high-quality business space and the right sorts of homes to support employees.
Image credit: NEGC
Image Credit: University of Essex: The University of Essex has set out an ambitious plan for the future, creating 100 new academic and 50 new professional posts, the largest expansion of staff in its history. The University’s new Strategic Plan sets out its ambition to grow the University to 20,000 students and 1,000 researchers by 2025.
Image Credit: University of Essex: The new centre creates a Science Square here at the heart of the Campus for the first time and also for the first time gives all six departments in the University’s Faculty of Science and Health a shared collaborative and social space.
The University of Essex is leading a £50,000 project that a could bring further Government investment worth up to £26m to the Eastern region to help local industries increase productivity. Essex is one of 24 ambitious projects that received early-stage funding from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s ‘Strength in Places’ grant to develop full-stage bids that could lead to significant economic growth in places across the country.
Image Credit: University of Essex: The new phase of the University of Essex’s Parkside Office Village is 100% let with companies and organisations showing huge enthusiasm for moving onto the University’s £100m Knowledge Gateway research and technology park in Colchester.
Image Credit: NEGC:The company, a collaboration between Braintree District, Tendring District, Colchester Borough and Essex County Councils to develop new purpose-built settlements over the coming 50+ years, has received the backing from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government – and has now received more than £3million of national funding since its inception.
Colchester is the first authority in East Anglia to secure funding from the Government’s Local Full Fibre Network Fund.