History

The following article featured in the Estates Gazette - Focus on Business Parks.

Case Study - "Green" Pastures for Crewe
by David Griffiths

Crewe Business Park in Cheshire is an instructive case of a property venture which is not only economically sound and environmentally friendly but economically sound because it is environmentally friendly!

With the current emphasis on green issues, any development in tune with nature is bound to attract media attention at the very least. But in the midst of a property market slump, can any developer afford to emphasise environmental issues to a point where, as at Crewe, the overall ratio of buildings to total site area is only around 25%.

This ratio is directly related to Crewe Business Park's ecological policy - the first of its kind in the UK. The park's owners, Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council and Cheshire County Council, instituted the policy at the very inception of the project in 1987 with the intention of maximising the park's natural assets to create a better - and so more marketable quality of working life.

Those assets seemed the natural alternative to the disappointing business parks of the high-density pagodas and clipped lawns variety which the Crewe Business Park marketing team found on a fact finding tour along the M4 corridor. The policy is based on a liaison with the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC) in the form of its locally affiliated body, the Cheshire Conservation Trust.

The trust was invited to appraise the ecological interest of the site and to make suggestions for its future management in order to enhance the landscape and benefit wildlife. A second, more detailed, survey with step-by-step recommendations has now been commissioned.

Natural features on the site include the Valley Brook, a sandy stream which flows through the park and is lined by crack willow, alder and oak trees, all of which are to be retained. The site is also note- worthy for its species-rich grass land, which is to be integrated into the park wherever possible. Hedge rows, valuable as bird-nesting sites, and wildlife corridors, are another vital element in the development. The many hedgerows on the park are to be retained as linear wood- land belts in conjunction with new plantings of thousands of native trees and shrubs.

With regard to new elements in the existing natural design, a large water feature constructed at the shaped pond excavated around a natural spring are already proving an attraction to wildfowl and waders.

"Wherever possible, the land. scaping has aimed to create excit- ing wildlife habitats as well as aesthetic pleasure," explained Mary Allen, Crewe Business Park market. ing officer. "In this respect, parti. cular care is being taken not to disturb a group of badger sets."

"When completed, Crewe Business Park will provide a green working environment in an urban area," said Audrey Lees, chairman of the Cheshire Conservation Trust and formerly controller of Trans- portation and Development at Greater London Council. "Here, it is just as it should be, business in harmony with nature each gaining from the other. The ecological policy demonstrates that a hi-tech site can be developed in harmony with wildlife and its natural habitats.

"This is the first time that we have worked alongside a developer, public or private, on this kind of project. Fortunately, there are signs that Crewe will become a blueprint for other developments throughout the UK involving the RSNC."

Without doubt, the policy is paying off in terms of national interest. tbe Times recently hailed Crewe as "Britain's first genuine eco business park" and 1m viewers saw the park featured on Granada Television's Green Life Guide.

But promotional success is no substitute for companies moving on to the park. And in this respect, too, Crewe's ecological policy is proving its worth. Indeed, the Swagelok (UK), a precision components firm -singled out the environment as a primary reason for locating its European head- quarters on 10 acres there.

Statistics show that Swagelok are not alone in citing environmental quality as the key ingredient in choosing a location. A recent business property survey, carried out by MORI, revealed conclusive evidence that hi-tech firms in the UK now prefer to locate on business parks with a natural look. Of the 3,000 companies interviewed, 86% of those classifiable as hi-tech considered the crucial factor in any decision to relocate to be a pleasant environment within a business park context.

AMEC Properties, who are well on the way to completing a £15m speculative development on 10 acres of the park, also see the ecological policy as "catering for the most up-to-date needs of business today". AMEC's contention seems well founded. One of the three buildings in the first phase of the scheme has already been reserved by a major division of the Milk Marketing Board. The former Farm Services division, now called Genus as part of a new corporate identity, announced in January that they are to move to Crewe in the autumn from Thames Ditton in Surrey. The division, which provides agricultural services to the 32,000 dairy farmers in England and Wales, is leasing a 21,680 sq ft purpose-built unit from AMEC. Interest in the other two and three-storey business units in phase one, of 12,450 sq ft and 37,410 sq ft, is also strong, at relocate from the crowded South East.

It is fitting that Europa Scientific are the most recent company to establish their headquarters on the site. The firm are playing a leading role in the green revolution, producing hi-tech instruments to trace such things as acid rain, the green-house effect and fertiliser run-off. Used by many of the world's leading scientists, over 80% of the instruments are exported to the USA, Australia, Japan and through- out Western Europe and the Third World. Not surprisingly, Europa were selected from 500 entries as finalists in last year's Radio Times Enterprise Competition and also won a Small Firms Merit Award for Research and Technology (SMART) run by the DTI in 1989.

As joint managing director Dr Andrew Barrie explained: "We have chosen to move to Crewe Business Park because, through our extensive exports, we need to

present a good image to visitors from such aftluent countries as America, Japan, and West Germany. "Crewe Business Park provides a wonderful environment for this purpose and its unique ecological policy could not be more appro- priate for our business. After all, many of our customers are ecologists."

The success of the park is clear. Three years after the launch of the project it has already recouped its £2m investment and the original 16- to I8-year schedule for completion has been halved, with the disposal of a third of available sites.