Fenland Council secures external funding to pave way for expansion of business park

FAST foot work by Fenland District Council has secured external funding of �400,000 to develop a major extension to its successful business park at Chatteris.

The council will provide an additional �250,000 to ensure the four industrial units can be built next to the South Fens Business Centre.

The �650,000 extension, set to be approved next week, was welcomed by council leader Alan Melton.

“This is a very welcome investment in employment for Chatteris,” he said. “The first phase of the South Fens Business Centre has proved to be a resounding success and the new investment will ensure that larger businesses can move into this new state of the art centre.

“We also aim to retain the embryonic businesses that have outgrown their current space and are in need of further space.”

Details of the funding were outlined to Fenland District Council Cabinet which reported that �200,000 from EEDA was only available until the end of March and �200,000 from the county council was only available for a further year.

Cllr Melton said EEDA had been presented with a business case “demonstrating the need for high quality, move-on space for small medium enterprises in the Fenland district and beyond.”

He promised the development would bring “high quality jobs and contribute to the diversity of the local economy.”

Land on which the units will be built is already owned by the council and talks have been on going since 2006 about developing it.

A much larger, �4 million scheme had been envisaged but the council had been unable to attract sufficient support.

“The proposed scheme has been designed to allow further expansion when funding becomes available,” said Cllr Melton.