New inroads prepare for business park in Bury.

Reporter: Ask Bury
Date online: 04/10/2007

A new access road to Chamberhall Business Park, the new home of Bury Police, will start on October 15.

The new access will create a new junction onto Peel Way at the existing Bolton Street traffic lights, a ramp down into the site across Carlyle Street and will connect to Castlecroft Road.   This will allow construction of the new divisional HQ for Greater Manchester Police to start in the spring of next year and the police intend to move from the Irwell Street premises at the end of 2009.

Property Alliance Group who have purchased and cleared a site next to the river near Bury Bridge will also be pushing ahead with their scheme to build 100,000 sq ft of offices.

The contractor for the road works is George Cox amp; Sons Ltd., Bolton who has been awarded a contract for £868,797.68  to complete the first phase of the works, due for completion next March.  The work has been made possible by the award of a £1.07 million grant from the North West Development Agency.  Phase two will start at the end of 2008 and the new cross roads onto Peel Way will be fully operational before the end of 2009.
 
Future work on the site will see the improvement of the riverside footpath and the Irwell Sculpture Trail, enhancement of the existing pond to act as a balancing pond to slow up rainfall reaching the river and help reduce flood risk, and improved footpath connections to the town centre and Fernhill.

The development of around a half million square feet of office space on the site is expected to take several years and will create around 2,500 jobs.  Some of these like the police HQ will be relocated from elsewhere in Bury but there will also be a large proportion of new jobs improving the choice and pay range of local jobs. 

Councillor Ian Gartside Executive Member for Employment said: "Chamberhall is the biggest single step so far in meeting the council's ambition to provide quality jobs for Bury people.  With this development we will see Bury placed firmly on the map as an office centre, growing local employment in knowledge industries".
Councillor Bob Bibby, Leader of Bury Council added: "Chamberhall will mean at least another £75 million investment in regeneration in Bury, bringing the total investment in regeneration of our town centres and employment areas to around £3/4 billion.  Work is already underway on the Rock, Townside, East Lancs Paper Mill and Whitefield town centre and more is in the planning stages.   These are exciting times presenting the biggest changes in the borough for 30 years.  We can already see the real prospect of a billion pounds reinvestment in Bury".