Detailed planning application submitted for MoD Defence Fulfilment Centre
Telford & Wrekin Council has now submitted a detailed planning application for the proposed MoD Defence Fulfilment Centre at Donnington.
The MoD confirmed in February that Telford had been chosen as the location for its Logistics, Commodities and Services (Transformation) – safeguarding as many as 1,000 jobs and creating up to 700 more in the supply chain.
The next step in this coming to fruition is the submission of the detailed application, which follows on from the Outline Planning Permission and provides further information about the layout, scale, appearance and landscaping of the proposed logistics facility.
The site will be accessed from Hortonwood 50, enabling effective management and separation of both HGV and personnel vehicles while minimising the impact on the local road network.
The warehouses that will form the Defence Fulfilment Centre have been reduced in overall height from the original outline planning application with a maximum roof height of 18 metres now proposed.
It is proposed that the elevations will use variances in colour and texture in order to limit the scale and visual impact of the buildings.
The application also includes proposals for the earthwork, landscaping and screening of the site to the north and west, including landscaped banks along the site’s northern boundary.
In time, a band of native woodland and thicket will provide additional screening.
A strong emphasis is being placed on a Biodiversity Plan because special features on the site include breeding habitat for great crested newts and bats with surrounding habitat also occupied by water voles and badgers.
Telford & Wrekin Council has worked closely with Kuehne + Nagel, who are the logistics lead in the MoD’s appointed consortium for the Logistic Commodities & Services (Transformation) Project, their design team and Natural England to ensure the proposals have as minimal impact on the local environment as possible.
Kate Callis, Telford & Wrekin Council’s Assistant Director for Development, Business and Employment, said: “We have been working hard to get to this point since the announcement that Telford had been chosen as the location for the Defence Fulfilment Centre.
“I am delighted that we have now been able to submit this detailed application which is a significant milestone on the route to realising the extremely substantial inward investment that Telford will benefit from as a result of winning this.
“I feel it is a sensitive and well thought out application which hopefully provides positive news for nearby residents in that the building is nearly 50 per cent lower than the original planning application allowed for.
“The maximum height allowed for at outline planning stage was only ever a contingency and was intended to put Telford in the best possible position with the bidders”
If the application that has now been submitted is approved, it is expected that work would start on constructing the new Defence Fulfilment Centre in Autumn 2015.
