Bingswood Industrial Estate is located immediately north of Whaley Bridge Town Centre. The estate houses over twenty businesses and provides a valuable source of local employment.
The Estate developed around the canal and was once serviced by a connecting but now long redundant rail link. The very basis of its growth, the waterways, now forms a barrier to its future development.
Access into Bingswood Industrial Estate is very poor, particularly for Heavy Goods Vehicles, which have to travel along narrow residential streets, through the canal basin and over an inadequate bridge in order to access the estate.
To remove this inappropriate traffic from the town’s historic core, and provide new opportunities for the Canal Basin, there is a long-term aspiration to construct a new access bridge and associated access road into the Industrial Estate.
The proposed new access will connect from the existing Tesco service road and via a new access bridge and road connect into the northern edge of Bingswood Industrial Estate.
The new access will create a number of opportunities for the Town Centre. Benefits include:
The significant costs and complexity of this project make its delivery challenging. Nevertheless the Borough Council are committed to facilitating the construction of the Goyt Bridge and have undertaken significant work to progress the project:
In addition British Waterways secured funding from the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) during February 2008 to undertake a Feasibility Study for the Transhipment Warehouse Heritage Works (external website**) have been appointed to undertaken this study which explores potential future uses for the building.
The next part of the process to facilitate the construction of the Goyt Bridge is to complete a comprehensive Masterplan for the area. This will provide a detailed implementation plan that will be used to guide the future development of the Bingswood Industrial Estate and the surrounding land. The Masterplan will clearly demonstrate the development potential created by the new access route.
In August 2008 High Peak Borough Council was awarded funding from the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership (DDEP) to complete this work.
Crucial elements of the Masterplan include:
For further information about the Masterplan, please contact the Economic Development Team on 0845 129 7777 or 01298 28400, or email customer-service@highpeak.gov.uk.