GOVERNMENT BACKS PLANNERS ON GIGAPORT SCHEME - 22 December 2008

The Government has given its backing to Walsall Gigaport, the £400 million scheme for a dynamic business quarter with super-fast communications technology which will transform the Black Country town’s economy.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, has decided not to “call in” the outline planning application which had been approved in principle by Walsall Council. The outline consent was one of the biggest planning decisions made in the UK this year.

Ben Reid, chairman of Walsall Regeneration Company (WRC), welcomed the Secretary of State’s decision as a clear demonstration of the Government’s confidence in Walsall’s plans for the future.

He said: “This is great news and even more significant in the current economic climate. Gigaport is a major transformational project that will help us to attract new industries, create high quality jobs and better equip Walsall to compete in a global market place.

“We are delighted that the planning process has gone smoothly and we can now press ahead with bringing the developers and investors on board to make this exciting scheme a reality.”

WRC is driving the Gigaport vision for a 23 hectare site that could create 3,000 jobs. The outline permission is for 127,000 sq m of high quality offices, including a Business Incubation Centre; a 4,000 sq m data centre, a 4,000 sq m hotel, 23,000 sq m of live/work space and a 6,000 sq m health and sports facility.

The office corridor, with the new Walsall College at its heart, will use optical technologies that will enable companies to do business hundreds of times faster than current broadband speeds. The high speed, big bandwidth, secure network is especially attractive to sectors such as finance, health and the digital creative industries.

The new Walsall College, which opens in September 2009, will help build the skill base for industries looking to locate in the high quality business space proposed.

Gigaport is potentially the most significant of WRC’s strategic transformational projects. It is designed to create a dynamic, sustainable 21^st century economy that will benefit all the town’s diverse communities and give students and young professionals confidence to remain and share in Walsall’s future.

The benefits of the Gigaport technology will also spread to local neighbourhoods, with the capability to provide enhanced interactive services-to-the-home, as well as promoting e-learning and online access in addition to access to 21^st century healthcare services.

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