Gravity is proud to join our link road contractor, Alun Griffiths in a unique presentation to the Institute of Civil Engineering. The presentation will highlight how our partnership with Alun Griffiths enables Gravity to deliver more sustainable growth while promoting innovation.
Programme Director, Paul Lowndes will give an overview of progress to date and outline how some 145,000 tonnes of site won material has been recycled and used to construct the link road.
The webinar is free to watch, click here to book your spot.
Traditionally our Q&A drop-in sessions have been held at the 37 Club, due to changing government guidelines, Gravity and Alun Griffiths will be hosting the next Link Road Q&A session virtually, if you want to understand more about work happening at Gravity? Be sure to join us online for those virtual Q&A community drop-in sessions.
The location may have changed, but the opportunity to ask any question on the Link Road has not.
Paul Lowndes, Gravity Programme Director runs these informative sessions with the help of Alun Griffiths. They will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about the progress of the link road.
These sessions are open to all, so if you have any questions or want to know more about our project, just click on the link below at a time most suited to yourself.
Gravity endorses the South West’s capacity to lead the UK’s ‘green recovery’ with an open letter to the Chancellor
Progress on the Link Road continues apace; the focus over the summer has been forming the landscape bund
Local Development Order on track
Continued efforts to place Clean Growth at the centre of Gravity with proven evidence from delivering a successful material management strategy, and sponsoring the ‘Environmental Achievement Award’ at the 2021 Somerset Business Awards
Discussions with world-leading companies are ongoing, keep an eye on our social channels for announcements
Open Letter to the Chancellor
Martin Bellamy and Lord David Triesman, Gravity Directors, penned an open letter to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak on 8 September, outlining the urgency of support need to support UK innovation. Gravity firmly believes the South West has the foundations in place to become a hub capable of fostering clean and inclusive economic growth. Read the open letter here.
Link Road Update
Over the summer, our focus has been on forming the landscape bund. 145,000 tonnes of blast mound material has been recovered and transported from the site to the link road. When complete, the landscape bund will act as a noise and visual barrier between activity on the link road and the local community. The recycled material used on the link road forms part of our sustainable materials management strategy, click here to find out more.
Local Development Order on-track
We are delighted with the progress to date and thank Sedgemoor District Council for drafting a Local Development Order for the Gravity enterprise zone.
We have developed our approach to clean and inclusive growth and how we are going to start to translate our vision into action. Our first delivery group meeting will be on 7 October with our partners and we look forward to sharing more updates with you shortly.
Recover, Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse
Our commitment to developing a leading smart campus underpinned by clean growth starts with its foundations. Evidence of Gravity’s successful material management strategy, created in partnership with Ashfield Solutions, is explored in an interview with Gravity’s Programme Director, Paul Lowndes.
“Our partnership with Ashfield Solutions ensures that Gravity has and continues to recover, reuse, recycle and repurpose all suitable on-site materials. This has significantly reduced disruption in surrounding communities and reduced our carbon footprint. We hope this strategy and its environmental considerations will guide more low-carbon developments across the UK
Paul Lowndes
Plans Progress for Knowle Hill
Gravity recently outlined plans for the development of six low-carbon homes at Knowle Hill. Find out more about the proposals here.
We look forward to hearing your views – leave your feedback by emailing the team.
Our Rail Plans
A £50million railway restoration is at the heart of Gravity. Network Rail’s feasibility study confirms the rail link will connect passengers and freight to Bristol, Bristol Port, Exeter and beyond, and is both deliverable and has sufficient paths to run the new rolling stock. Read more information on the railway project.
Gravity sponsors ‘Environmental Achievement Award’ at Somerset Business Awards 2021
Entries close midday 27 November, the ceremony will take place on March 26, 2021. The awards are free to enter and businesses do not need to be a member of the Chamber to take part.
Gravity in the media
Gravity Chairman, Martin Bellamy was interviewed on Wake up to Money, BBC 5 Live. The discussion centered on current business affairs, Gravity’s ambition for advanced manufacturing in the UK and the future of Apple and Tesla. Listen here.
Events
Gravity Chairman, Martin Bellamy joins the Real Estate Live UK – South West Panel.
The discussion ‘Steering Growth to the South West‘ will ask incisive questions about the key drivers of growth for the South West and evaluate the successful implementation of initiatives designed to stimulate investment in the region. Find out more.
Gravity Chairman, Martin Bellamy, will be joining the Keynote South West panel at the upcoming ‘Real Estate Live UK‘ online conference, taking place 9th October.
The discussion ‘Steering Growth to the South West‘ will ask incisive questions around the key drivers of growth for the South West and evaluate the successful implementation of initaives designed to stimulate investment in the region.
Across the UK we have the Northern Powerhouse, the Midlands Engine, and the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, but what is the combined pull and what are the key drivers of growth for the South West? Over recent years there have been initiatives in place to stimulate investment across the region – how successful have these been, where is the South West seeing significant development, and which sectors are predicted to expand its economy?
A £50 million railway restoration is at the heart of the UK’s first commercial Smart Campus, redefining the way we work, live and play for a cleaner, more sustainable future.
Gravity will see 635-acres, with direct access to Junction 23 of the M5, transformed into a flagship Smart Campus.
Network Rail has confirmed in a now completed feasibility study that the rail link will connect both passengers and freight to Bristol, Exeter, Bristol Port and beyond, and is both deliverable and has sufficient paths to run the new rolling stock.
The Smart Campus will be served by the Gravity HUB – an integrated transport mobility centre at the heart of the site. It will connect strategic infrastructure with mobility as a service and where interconnection of the rail will maximise the use of future micro-mobility.
Providing an ‘end to end’ transport solution, creating access to new opportunities, it will be facilitated by a Gravity travel app, reducing commuting by road and attracting new employers and employees from urban areas via the rail network.
Gravity will also provide a test bed for micro mobility product development and trials, with the ability to manufacture and distribute to the wider UK and beyond via on site rail freight.
There will also be the opportunity to host university partners to participate in live lab trials and transport research, examine, experiment with and advise on travel behaviours within the surrounding sub-region along the M5 Growth Corridor.
“Now, more than ever before, our world needs new thinking and new technologies to solve some of our most pressing economic, environmental and societal challenges. That is why we created Gravity. The high quality natural landscape mixed with exciting opportunities for leisure, creates a wonderful location for business and their employees, on a scale never seen before in the UK.”
Tom Curtis – Co-CEO of Gravity
As for the site generally, Gravity will shape the economic future of the South West of England and beyond with the creation of 4,000 jobs with new key worker housing and serviced accommodation to support the site.
The team behind this smart campus are committed to ensuring that Gravity will be at the leading edge of sustainable transport and mobility providing walking, cycling and public transport options to the site and future mobility options on the site, now.
Pioneering approaches to sustainable smart mobility are a critical element at Gravity. The vision ensures a large part of both freight and passengers are brought to and from site by rail with the objective to restore the former rail connection to Gravity. This will link to the main line connecting to Bristol and Exeter and Bristol Port tipped to be one of the ‘freeports’ announced later this year. This ‘freeport’ status combined with innovative digital architecture led by Bristol University through the 5G Create programme and rail restoration from Bristol Port to Gravity will open up a new advanced manufacturing destination for inward investment.
“Gravity exemplifies the UK’s ambition to decarbonise, diversify and grow our economy, as a progressive approach to a changing climate. As the UK transitions to a low-carbon future, the grand challenges of digital, clean growth and the future of mobility will play an integral role in meeting our commitments at Gravity whilst aligned with the Government’s industrial strategy.”
Lord David Triesman – Director of Gravity
This is a future element to drive efficient, cost effective and future-proofed distribution of freight to and from the site by connecting it to Bristol deep sea port, and the rest of the country, and also ensures the employment capture for the site includes the cities of Exeter and Bristol within 45 minutes. This element is vital to reduce reliance on road transport for both freight and employees.
Gravity has ambitious deliverables, drawing on the foundations of the investment made through national infrastructure projects in Somerset, to further the legacy into sustainable economic growth for the South West: Gravity is already well on their way and welcome support in working to explore this potential and to accelerate delivery to connect people and places to new opportunities – linking cities and people to jobs – using end to end micro-mobility enabled by strategic transport.
“Bridgwater is an industrial heartland. When BAE shut up shop, we didn’t want a piecemeal development. We wanted to have a company which took the site and turned it into a visionary scheme that would stand the test of time.”
Ian Liddell-Grainger – MP for Bridgwater & West Somerset
Join our journey
For more information on locating to Gravity or how to be involved in the mobility planning.
Contact Tom curtis Email: Info@thisisgravity.co.uk Tel: 0207 160 0006
London, September 8, 2020 – Gravity’s Programme Director, Paul Lowndes interviewed Chris Marshall, Director of Ashfield Solutions about the successful implementation of our bespoke material management strategy.
“Our partnership with Ashfield Solutions ensures that Gravity has and continues to recover, reuse, recycle and repurpose all suitable on-site materials. This has significantly reduced disruption in surrounding communities and reduced our carbon footprint.
We hope this strategy and its environmental considerations will guide more low-carbon developments across the UK”. Gravity’s Programme Director, Paul Lowndes
Watch the full interview below.
For more information, download our brochure and sign up for our newsletter via our website footer.
About Gravity
Gravity, the UK’s first commercial smart campus, is the blueprint for a smarter, cleaner future – faster. It will deliver a new era of possibility by supporting companies making a difference socially, economically and environmentally, driving the UK’s shift to growing through a cleaner economy.
With direct access to the M5 and accessible by rail, air and sea, the site offers over 616 acres for the creation of millions of sq ft of scalable, flexible and shared working space.
Multinationals and start-ups will benefit from the excellent connectivity and speed of build out Gravity offers. By attracting today’s giants and tomorrow’s unicorns, there will be significant opportunities for collaboration.
With its on-site water provision, renewable and low carbon energy infrastructure and building energy management, dark fibre, excellent transport links, accessible talent pool and knowledge economy including four top-tier universities close by, Gravity provides occupiers with the ability to build, expand, and develop faster and efficiently.
Gravity has invited local residents, community organisations and businesses to learn more about the scheme from this website which will be publishing full details on 16 September, including a flyover video about the scheme. You will be able to submit comments from this date. If you have any questions the team can be contacted at gravity@social.co.uk.
For those who would like to meet the Knowle Hill project team face-to-face, we are also running drop-in events that start at 6pm and 7pm on Wednesday, 16 September at 37 Club, Puriton.
To help us manage numbers for the drop-in events, booking is essential. You can book here. Please note that places will be issued on a first come first-served basis.
We hope to hear from you, whether online or in person, soon!
This letter from Martin Bellamy and Lord David Triesman, was sent on 8 September 2020.
Dear Chancellor,
The response from you and your team to the early-stage economic fallout of the pandemic has been significant.
But, now we must now turn urgently from job preservation to job creation to create a country that is fit for not just a post-COVID future, but a post Brexit one as well – all while ensuring the country meets its net-zero targets by 2050.
Fundamentally, that means investing and supporting innovation across the country.
Your Government’s commitment to “level up” the UK’s regions and provide a path to prosperity for everyone, regardless of geography is very welcome. However, efforts to level up must be truly national, and the South West has a clear and distinct role to play here.
The South West has tremendous potential to quickly become a hub of economic – and clean – growth in the UK; the Government’s support for the Western Gateway and plans to “promote a clean, green recovery” and “level up” in the process make that potential all the clearer.
As you know, the South West already has the foundations in place to drive a green recovery. The area is already home to seven Government enterprise zones which would aid a green growth charge. World leaders such as GENeco, Viridor and Suez Environmental are already embedded in the region and are accelerating the transition to a circular economy with their innovative projects in biomass and waste-to-energy.
But the government must commit to aligning existing funds and programmes to expedite jobs, and invest new funds into delivery to ensure that these foundations are capitalised on and quickly. A ‘joined up’ approach across Government to align growth potential with resources in a timely way is going to be critical to success.
Big picture thinking, mapping existing investment programmes and aligning with growth opportunities to add value, could create golden opportunities to achieve demonstrable success for the UK.
Ensuring Bristol – the first UK city to be awarded the European Green Capital Award – and a UK’s leading smart city – is one of the ‘freeports’ announced later this year, enabled by the 5G Create programme and rail restoration, will be crucial to building on the already strong knowledge and innovation platforms, underpinned by digital capability and green credentials.
Access to a freeport with scalable advanced manufacturing facilities will be the difference needed to enable the UK to compete for international investment and attract the companies of tomorrow. If it brought someone like Tesla to the South West, by offering them destination sites, connectivity, high levels of service through import and export facilities, the benefits would be far more than purely economic: A new innovative industry, thousands of long-term, green jobs and a move toward the net-zero carbon targets in one fell swoop.
And investment into helping more commercial space to foster innovative industry be built and be established is needed. Your recent announcement of ‘to deliver public investment projects more strategically and efficiently’ is welcome in this respect.
Investment into simplified planning and digital consultation would be welcome to collaborate and drive new best practice to realise economic outcomes.
Business is ready and waiting for you to deliver on ‘Project Speed’. Not only identifying but progressing shovel-ready projects as fast as possible with minimum fuss will be key. The South West – which already has green and clean clusters – has many projects that can act as blueprints for the nation.
Gravity is a UK site for inward investment. Based in the South West, already hosting the Hinkley Point C and Hinkley Connection National Infrastructure Projects, the region has an excellent track record in leading and managing complex projects in the national interest. (Lord Triesman draws your attention to his interests as recorded in the Parliamentary Register).
Gravity with over 600 acres of land available, is purpose-built to support the innovative, sustainable giants of tomorrow. We would be a perfect fit for the electric-vehicle enabling gigafactories which DIT is trying to attract investment into — which would enable the South West to lead on the next generation of automotive technologies – complimenting and strengthening existing facilities in Bristol and Bath, such as the National Composite, Robotics and Advanced Propulsion centres.
Manufactured @Gravity, transported out by a restored rail line to Bristol port for export.
A centre for smart mobility and transport innovation, Gravity has ambitions to operate as a live lab to test solutions for the future from e-scooters and smart infrastructure, a significant opportunity for government and the Department of Transport.
Imagine, with just a one-hour commute, you would find three of the world’s top 100 universities, the proposed freeport at Bristol and the main UK campuses of huge innovators such as Dyson and Airbus. Within just this potential cluster you have the potential for a vertically-integrated green powerhouse: From idea generation, to assembly, to shipment — with thousands of jobs and social value created at each stage.
The business community has welcomed the Government’s collaboration in working together to overcome the worst of the problems presented by the pandemic. This must be continued, and even accelerated. It is only by working together that we will create jobs for the millions of workers displaced by the pandemic, efficiently plan and deliver infrastructure and find innovative ways to grow greenly.
Post-Covid Britain has to the potential to be cleaner, greener, healthier and more productive and we must now take this opportunity to strike out and make a real difference, and quickly.
London, September 2, 2020 – Martin Bellamy, Chairman of This Is Gravity Ltd was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 live’s ‘Wake up to Money’ programme. The discussion centered on current business affairs, Gravity’s ambition for advanced manufacturing in the UK and the future of Apple and Tesla
Martin Bellamy comments, “The UK desperately needs to build ‘Gigfactories’ like Elon Musk is around the world…for the UK to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles, the government must be prepared to back the initiatives which enable the UK to mass manufacture lithium-ion batteries.”
London, August 2020 – Gravity, the UK’s first commercial smart campus, is delighted to announce that it will be sponsoring the newly added ‘Environmental Achievement Award‘ at this year’s Somerset Business Awards, organised by Somerset Chamber of Commerce.
Gravity is proud to support an event that celebrates the incredible achievements of local individuals and businesses, recognising the impact of their contributions towards protecting the environment during what has been a challenging year.
This event’s Environmental Achievement Award takes on greater significance with four Somerset authorities including Sedgemoor passing resolutions to declare or recognise ‘A Climate Emergency’, and have since agreed to collaborate to produce and deliver an ambitious climate strategy for Somerset.
Entries open on September 1, the awards ceremony will take place on March 26, 2021. The awards are free to enter and businesses do not need to be a member of the Chamber to take part.
Gravity, the UK’s first commercial smart campus, is the blueprint for a smarter, cleaner future – faster. It will deliver a new era of possibility by supporting companies making a difference socially, economically and environmentally, driving the UK’s shift to growing through a cleaner economy.
With direct access to the M5 and accessible by rail, air and sea, the site offers over 635 acres for the creation of millions of sq ft of scalable, flexible and shared working space.
Multinationals and start-ups will benefit from the excellent connectivity and speed of build out Gravity offers. By attracting today’s giants and tomorrow’s unicorns, there will be significant opportunities for collaboration.
With its on-site water provision, renewable and low carbon energy infrastructure and building energy management, dark fibre, excellent transport links, accessible talent pool and knowledge economy including four top-tier universities close by, Gravity provides occupiers with the ability to build, expand, and develop faster and efficiently.
