Concerns have been raised about how much money will need to be borrowed to deliver a major new employment site near Bridgwater.

Sedgemoor District Council has been working to help deliver the Gravity smart campus, located on the former Royal Ordnance factory between the villages of Puriton and Woolavington, east of the M5.

A local development order was created for the site in December 2021 following public consultation in the autumn, which will speed up the delivery of different elements of the campus.

But the leader of Somerset County Council has warned that significant sums may need to be borrowed to deliver the necessary infrastructure.

Bill Revans said: “I’m sure that putting this together in the context of what’s going on with local government in Somerset at the moment and the future of the local enterprise partnership must make it incredibly difficult. It’s spinning plates with jelly on top.

“There will be caution from some of my colleagues that we are being asked to borrow a considerable amount of money for investment in one particular area.

“That kind of borrowing has been criticised in the past from some people who are now advocating it.”

Under a local development order, the use for a given site is agreed in advance between the council and the developer, along with guidelines over the designs and heights of the buildings.

This allows the developer to begin constructing different elements of the site without having to submit individual planning applications, making the delivery of the entire site much quicker.

The infrastructure connecting the site to the local area will be delivered through public money; for instance, the £10.3M access road linking the site to the A39 Bath Road – which was opened in October 2021 – was funded through the growth deal fund of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News: Artist's impression of the Gravity smart campus being constructed near Bridgwater. Gravity.Artist's impression of the Gravity smart campus being constructed near Bridgwater. Gravity. (Image: Gravity)

There have been ambitions to connect the site to the main railway line between Bristol and Exeter – though LEP officials warned in October that this could cost up to £50M to deliver.

The remaining infrastructure will be delivered by borrowing by the new unitary Somerset Council, which will officially replace Somerset’s county council and four district council in April 2023.

This money will be repaid over several years through the business rates generated from the companies which end up occupying the site.

Stuart Houlet, the district council’s assistant director for inward investment and growth, laid out the reasoning behind this in a report to the executive committee on July 6.

He said: “This agreement in principle will provide confidence to prospective investors in the site and potentially form part of an overall approach to securing strategic occupiers to select the site, alongside commitments from central government.

“This would be in the context of securing large-scale investment decisions relating to the site, which in the short term will maximise the overall quantum of business rate uplift to be retained in Somerset over the lifetime of the enterprise zone.

“This will have favourable implications for the level of potential surplus for wider investment in economic growth more generally for Somerset.”

Councillor Mark Healey said the benefits of the Gravity site in the long-term outweighed the risks associated with substantial levels of borrowing.

Mr Healey – whose Puriton and Woolavington ward includes the site – said: “Look at the project as it is at the moment – it’s one of the biggest in the UK.

“The prestige for Somerset and the unitary authority is huge – look at the international recognition that we’re going to get, and the support we’re going to get going forward.

“It puts Somerset on the world map, so I can only support this. This is one of the biggest infrastructure builds in Europe – how can we afford to not go forward with this?”

The principle of borrowing to deliver the Gravity site, with the money being repaid through business rates, is expected to come before the county council’s executive and the full council for approval later in the year.