Bringing train building back to its first home

Bringing train building back to its first home

PATIENCE, perseverance and partnership played a key role in getting a global rail giant to choose Newton Aycliffe as a preferred site to build next generation trains.

Today's announcement by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond brings to a successful conclusion efforts to secure Government funding for the Intercity Express Programme, providing a fitting finale to nearly two decades’ hard work  to find the right occupant for one of County Durham’s largest flagship manufacturing sites.

The land at Amazon Park in Newton Aycliffe is owned by Merchant Place Developments in partnership with Durham County Council. Durham County Council, as far back as the early 1990s, had recognised the site’s location and transport links as major strengths for multi-national companies looking to establish manufacturing operations in the UK.

“For County Durham, it presented an opportunity to attract a company of the like of Nissan to set up operations,” said Stewart Watkins, managing director of the County Durham Development Company (CDDC) which is the county council’s innovation and strategic  investment  arm.

Mr Watkins added: “We wanted to bring in a big impact player that would give a similarly strong economic injection to the one that car manufacturing gave the region. However, our work to market the site coincided with a major shift in the world economy.”

Faced with a rapidly evolving business landscape, the county council could have followed the lead of others and broken up the 104-acre area into smaller plots but it recognised the business beacon that a single site occupier would bring to help Durham’s SME community develop and grow.

A decade later, CDDC formed a partnership with developers Merchant Place to find the right tenant. Having already installed the necessary access to the site by building a road bridge over the railway line and a roundabout at the northern entrance with the help of partners, the public/private alliance put in the hard yards needed to market such a large plot of land on the global stage.

Geoff Hunton, director of Merchant Place Developments, explained why the site fits Hitachi’s needs for a long-term manufacturing project such as IEP. He said: “We can provide rail access into the heart of the site, a test track and a purpose-built facility that we are able to price and finance. And the site requires no major remedial work.

"We could also provide Hitachi with a landmark development  that would provide a high-quality working environment in a sustainable and energy-efficient building that is designed for the purpose of assembling rail carriages and stock."

There are very few sites in the UK or abroad that provide the combination of benefits that Amazon Park offers, and the fact that it has even made the preferred list for the global manufacturer demonstrates the foresight of the decisions taken in the early 1990s.

Mr Watkins said: “Breaking the site up into bite-sized chunks in the late 1990s would have been an easy option to rent out the land but would never have brought the scale of economic benefits that the Intercity Express Programme will generate for County Durham. It goes to show that the right ambition and working together with local developers have  the potential to attract the next Nissan to the North East.”

There is now a growing trend for councils working closely with developers to bring large scale commercial developments to fruition. Along the road at Spennymoor, Durham County Council is working with an alliance of developers to turn Durham Gate into a reality that will create many thousands of  jobs.

Mr Watkins said: “The more we can drive this strategic development activity, the stronger our economy will grow.”