A new planning application for homes and offices on part of the old Ministry of Defence "tank factory" at Longcross are now with Runnymede and Surrey Heath Borough Councils.
The plans are for just 40 hectares of the site, now owned by Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA), lying to the north of the M3 motorway at Chobham Lane.
Ultimately Runnymede Council would like to see a much extensive area of the old tank design and development facility, currently used as a industrial-business estate, taken out of green belt and used for housing. This scale of development would create a whole new village on the edge of Chobham Common.
The current plans by Crest Nicholson and Aviva Investors are for 80,000 sq metres of office space and up to 200 new homes, including affordable homes. Artists' impressions show ultra modern office buildings with the residential areas using architecture in more traditional style.
The co-developers already have planning permission for a bigger office-only scheme on this part of the site but they say their reasons for revising their original plans are to better fulfil local employment and housing needs and also to open up large parts of previously inaccessible land for public use. Between 4,000 and 5,000 are the numbers put on new jobs at the complex, which would be served by a revitalised Longcross Station and a promised bus service to other local towns and villages.
Chris Tinker, Crest Nicholson Regeneration Chairman and Operational Board Director said he had been delighted to see so many people from the local community at a public exhibition of the scheme in June."We have sought to incorporate their suggestions into our proposals where possible," he said.
