NM15: Employment
Policy NM15: Employment
The Neighbourhood Plan identifies land in established employment use as shown on the Policies Map at:
- Gore Road Industrial Estate
- Williams Industrial Park
- Hamilton Business Park
- New Milton Business Centre
- Wick One
- Wick Two
- Queensway / Stem Lane Industrial Estate
- Double H Nurseries.
These sites are of strategic economic value to the town and fundamental to its spatial strategy.
- Proposals for the intensification of employment uses on, or to extend, a site for new Class E(g) and B2 uses, will be supported, provided they will not cause significant harm to the amenity of adjoining residential areas.
- Proposals that require planning permission for the change of use of land or premises on a site to a non-Class E or -Class B use will not be supported in any circumstance.
- Development proposals that will result in the loss of existing employment land elsewhere in the parish will only be supported if it can be satisfactorily demonstrated that the land is no longer in a competitive location to support a continuation of an employment use
Supporting text
The long term future of New Milton as a modern, vibrant and sustainable town serving a larger economically active population depends on it sustaining and growing its economic base. Its proximity to larger centres of population and businesses in the Solent to the east and in the Bournemouth-Poole conurbation, and its high-quality coastal environment, make it an attractive location for business.
In developing a vibrant local economy it is important that we seek to retain (young) skilled workers in the town as opposed to them out commuting. In this respect the linking with education establishments, including local colleges and universities, is key to ensure people that people leaving full time education are sufficiently skilled to be able to take advantage of locally created skilled jobs within New Milton.
This policy identifies six established employment locations in the town to protect them from a change of use to non-employment uses and to support their intensification.
In support of the brownfield approach to development this policy shows how any loss of existing employment space on some of the NM5 and NM24 sites will be compensated for by protecting employment land in the right places for new investment.
The six sites are located within a cluster to the west of the town centre and are mostly on the site of the Gore Brick Company which operated claypits and brickworks to the north and south of Gore Road by Stem Lane, in the late nineteenth century, with the last brickworks closing in the 1960s. They have good access to the road network and are still accessed from both roads and located less than 1m walk/cycle to the station. They each have potential for making better use of the land and some premises for infill, redevelopment and refurbishment to create new jobs in modern, flexible business units at higher job densities (i.e. FTE jobs per sq.m. floorspace) than a number of the current uses.
Double H Nursery, to the South of Gore Road, is a family run business, started in 1961 which continues to be a market leader in indoor plants, supplying UK supermarkets, garden centres and online retailers. They have modern plant production facilities and are leading the industry with innovative, sustainable and efficient manufacturing practices.