Employment Sites

14.9 The balance between the population and the number of jobs in the town is one which the Replacement Local Plan, as part of a series of measures, will seek to improve. While commuting to other centres is unlikely to diminish, it is important to enhance the range of employment opportunities available in the town, to give more choice of work in Haverhill. The town's current employment base reflects its recent history of accommodating a Greater London Council expansion programme with the associated concentration on manufacturing industries.

14.10 The Replacement Local Plan will help to increase the range of jobs by providing sites which can attract research and technology based industries as well as sites for the support industries needed to maintain the growing economy of the Cambridge sub-region. Sites for business parks are already identified in the adopted Local Plan. The Replacement Local Plan can protect these sites and make sure they accommodate the uses for which they are identified. The moving five year average of employment land take-up in Haverhill has experienced year on year increase in recent years. These take-up rates are approaching 2 hectares a year and it is expected that take-up will continue at this rate; as such a target of a minimum of two hectares a year has been set to inform the town's future employment requirements. There has also been considerable development of the land at Bumpstead Road which falls within Braintree district.

14.11 Given Haverhill's location within the Cambridge sub-region, the aim to achieve a balance between the number of jobs and inhabitants in the town and the need to provide a meaningful range of sites for a variety of employment uses it is considered that additional land, above that identified by past employment take-up rates, is needed to cater for all of Haverhill's employment needs during the plan period. The surplus land identified in Table 6 will provide for this need.

Table 6 - Projected Employment Requirements

14.12 Planning permission has been granted for the Haverhill Business Park on Bumpstead Road, part of which is in the Braintree district, and this will meet employment land requirements in the short to medium term. It is considered necessary for the town's economy to keep the Hanchett End Business Park area as an allocation for B1 and B8 uses, given its gateway location from the A1307 Cambridge road. Policy HAV3 seeks to keep Hanchett End as a special gateway site.

POLICY HAV3: STRATEGIC EMPLOYMENT SITE - HANCHETT END, HAVERHILL

12 hectares of land at Hanchett End, Haverhill are allocated as a strategic employment site for Class B1 and Class B8 uses of the Town & Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).

Development at the Hanchett End Business Park will comprise of the following:

• a) light industrial, research and office use (Proposals for pure B1 office development must satisfy the relevant requirements of Policy TCR1);
  b) units for new and small firms involved in high technology and related activities; or
  c) low density development with extensive landscaping.

The amount of land available for development, location of uses, access arrangements, design and landscaping will be informed by a masterplan for the site. Applications for planning permission will only be considered once a masterplan has been adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document by the local planning authority. The developer will be expected to prepare the masterplan in accordance with the concept statement for the site.

14.13 With the exception of the Homefield Road General Employment Area, undeveloped land on existing general employment areas is expected to accommodate demand for general employment (B2 uses) and low value land uses (storage etc).

POLICY HAV4: GENERAL EMPLOYMENT AREAS - HAVERHILL

The following areas are designated as General Employment Areas:

Within the General Employment Areas, the following land is available for development:

Proposals for industrial and business development within General Employment Areas will be permitted providing that space requirements, parking, access and general environmental considerations can be met.

Proposals for pure B1 office development must satisfy the relevant requirements of Policy TCR1.

Note:
References to Classes B1, B2 and B8 are as defined in the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).
*There is an additional 7.9 hectares of land with permission at Bumpstead Road, Haverhill which is within Braintree District.