New £140m business park approved at Newton Aycliffe

Forrest Park (Newton Aycliffe) Limited has secured outline planning permission to develop a 55-hectare site located at the southeast of the town for commercial and manufacturing use.

This will see the creation of 1,750,000ft² of business, industrial, warehouse and trade units, a 60-bed hotel, public house and roadside restaurant and retail units next to the A1.

The development will extend Aycliffe Business Park to become the largest in the North East and has the potential to create up to 3,200 jobs and boost County Durham's economy by almost half a billion pounds over the next 20 years.

Earlier this year it was featured in a property portfolio, launched by the Department for International Trade, to showcase the wide array of opportunities on offer in the UK to foreign investors.

It was one of just 11 projects chosen to demonstrate Britain's strengths in key sectors, from manufacturing and green energy production, to tourism, business and housing.

Jonathan Robinson, Barberry developments director, said: "The approval of the Forrest Park planning application is major news for the North East. Richardson Barberry, working alongside Durham County Council, the Forrest family and the Local Enterprise Partnership, has a vision to create a business park that provides a wide range of high-quality accommodation which will attract local, regional, national and international occupiers, stimulating economic growth and new jobs for the region.

Last year, planning permission was granted to improve access to the site. These major highways, signalisation, drainage and power upgrades have already been completed, including the creation of a new traffic light-controlled junction on the A167.