Construction of a new £1.16m business enterprise centre in Highbridge is ‘on track to be completed early next year’, bringing the prospect of new jobs and companies to the town, the county council has said.
The new ‘business enterprise hub’ at Highbridge’s Isleport Recycling Centre will be home to up to 35 small businesses and could create scores of jobs.
Speculation that the project has been delayed has been rejected. Jonathan Williams, a spokesman for Somerset County Council, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Work on the Highbridge Enterprise Centre began in May and is due to complete in early 2015.”
He added that there has been a lot of interest in the site, but declined to give any specifics.
“We have been contacted by a number of companies interested in the site and are in the process of following these enquiries up,” he said.
The two-storey building will contain over 130 square metres for office space, and a further 130 square metres for ‘business incubation’ space.
The project aims to help small firms gain offices to expand their operations and create jobs. It is of particular interest to firms on Highbridge’s Morland Business Park which is set to close later in the year.
Caroline Spelman, the government’s former Secretary of State for the Environment, visited the site in May 2012, with Highbridge County Councillor John Woodman as pictured, when the scheme was first announced.
A formal planning application was submitted last year and it was approved soon after by Sedgemoor District Council and the Town Council.
It is one of several projects being backed by Devon and Somerset’s Rural Growth Network which aims to create more than 1,300 jobs in the region and boost the south west’s economy by £58 million.
