Rob Stevens

Firstly, I hope this newsletter finds you, your family, and your colleagues safe and healthy. I would also like to thank the Gravity team and our partners, who, under unusual working conditions, have done some exceptional work and achieved great things. I would particularly like to pay my gratitude to the 37 Club for providing over 7,000 much-needed meals to the local community.

It’s exactly a year since we had our Ground Breaking event at Gravity; I believe the last two months have been some of the busiest. The Link Road and landscaping bund is well underway which I am sure the residents will be pleased about.

I also want to bring to your attention our newly launched video on Gravity, which you can watch here.

The Strategic Design Code and Landscape Masterplan are now with the council for consideration. Gravity is also working with the District Council to explore a new planning consent called a Local Development Order that seeks to create employment but also improves climate action and addresses broader sustainable development goals. This is going to be key to drive forward the strategic response to economic renewal and job creation.

Thank you to all those who contributed to the consultation event on the Village Enhancement Scheme. We will be submitting a full planning application on this as soon as possible.

I recently had the pleasure of discussing what Gravity means to the South West with MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, Ian Liddell-Grainger. You can watch the full interview here, including Mr. Liddell-Grainger’s response when I ask him what he would say to entice Mr. Elon Musk to Gravity!

Keeping open levels of communication is top of our list, and I am pleased to announce that we are re-instating our Drop-In sessions with the next one on the 8th July. These sessions are open to all, alternatively, do email us any queries if you wish to keep in touch from home.

We are anticipating a busy summer as we work with the Government department Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department of International Trade (DIT), and a plethora of entities in promoting the SW as vital in terms of strategic economic renewal post-Covid 19. Our work with BEIS will be centered on supporting the South West’s aim to become the UK’s hub for clean and inclusive growth. We will look at all opportunities to enable this, from rail restoration through to improving digital connectivity, exploring free port zone, through to targeting sectors and occupiers that would be a perfect fit and create higher-value job opportunities into the future.

I look forward to updating you on our progress in our September newsletter.

Thank you for your own going support, and please keep safe.

Martin Bellamy, Chairman

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Latest Gravity News

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Gravity Q&A drop-in session

Gravity will be restarting the Q&A community drop-in sessions. These events are open to all, with the appropriate social distancing, so if you have any questions or want to know more about our project.

Please join us – you do not need to register in advance.

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Link Road Update

A record-breaking Spring has kept the team ahead of schedule on the landscape bund, so far 60,000 tonnes of recycled blast mound material has been 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 next step will be to submit plans to the council for the Village Enhancement Scheme to provide important links between Gravity and the two villages. Thank you to everyone that contributed to make this such a collaborative process and inform the design. This is very much appreciated. Plans should be submitted end of June/ early July.

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Strategic Design Code & Landscape Masterplan

Already submitted to the council to discharge ‘site-wide’ planning conditions, these strategy documents take us a significant step forward in thinking through and communicating our ambition for clean growth and turning this into design guidance on which further planning applications will be assessed. These documents are available on the Council’s web site.

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Next Steps

There is a good deal of work underway from; ecological surveys to keep our baseline up to date, crafting our clean growth principles and priorities, to initiating a digital masterplan and a refreshed transport strategy. We look forward to sharing our progress in our next newsletter.

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Community Meal Delivery Service

With the incredible support of volunteers from The 37 Club, Woolavington & Puriton Parish Councils and the wider community, Gravity established a food delivery service. Its aim was to reach those locally who were most in need during self-isolation.

Since the service was set up, the team has served over 7,000 meals to the communities of Woolavington and Puriton.

The 37 Club has been inundated with heartfelt messages of gratitude from residents who have relied on this service.

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has enabled us to deliver these meals and support the local communities. Feats like this are achieved collectively as a community, one that Gravity is proud to be a part of.

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Heritage Film – Coming Soon

Unique memories of the Royal Ordnance Factory Bridgwater have been captured in an upcoming short film produced in collaboration between Sedgemoor District Council, South West Heritage Trust and Somerset Film. We look forward to sharing the film.

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Gravity in the media

Since our last newsletter in April, Gravity has appeared across several media outlets including BBC Radio Somerset, The Times, The Driving Supplement of the Sunday Times and Property Week. It has been a great few months for investment in the South West and drawing attention to the potential of the region

To read the full articles visit www.thisisgravity.co.uk/resources

Events

Developing the Wetsern Gateway

Gravity’s Director – Planning and Economic Development, Claire Pearce, recently participated in a panel discussion hosted by The Built Environment Network. The webinar focused on the challenges and opportunities faced in delivery the Western Gateway – the new proposed powerhouse forming a collaborative approach between the West of England and South Wales.

Whist being located in the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership area, the Sedgemoor economy is closely aligned and functionally integrated with the Bath/ Bristol economy, and emerging opportunities relating to Free Port Zones, rail restoration and research into digital connectivity, will serve to build and strengthen relationships for example between Gravity and the airport, port and Bristol University.

Firstly, I hope you, your family and colleagues are all healthy as we adjust to this new challenge set upon us. In many respects, for the Gravity team, it is business as ‘usual’ as we continue to deliver our world-leading smart campus from our respective homes during these trying times.

All of us here at Gravity are most concerned for the safety and well-being of our families, colleagues, customers, partners, and the many friends who make up Gravity’s vibrant family, which is why we have put the following measures in place.

• Working Remotely: With many already used to working flexibly, this shift has fortunately been relatively smooth, and we believe should have little impact on our ability to deliver.

We’re also asking our teams and clients to work through digital channels as much as possible. This includes our events, which we are either postponing or transforming into virtual events. This is also an area where we are currently developing and providing new solutions for online events: both our own and our partners.

• Meetings with our consultant team and partners will continue virtually to maintain momentum and to continue to make progress over this period. We will be using the time to make progress discharging site-wide planning conditions and developing our approach to achieving our ambitions. • Safety On-Site: Employees who must be on-site are applying social distancing and hygiene protocols based on guidance from health authorities.
• Link Road completion: The government has deemed this work ‘Critical Infrastructure’, and as such it is still going ahead. We are pleased to be able to support this as it does provide a vital link for our communities and are doing everything we can to help these works proceed in a safe and controlled manner. You can read more here.
• Meals for high risk: Gravity is working alongside Puriton & Woolavington Parish Councils to provide hot meals to the 60-80 individuals who are the most vulnerable and isolated in the local community. I would personally like to extend my gratitude to the volunteers that are preparing and delivering this much needed hot meal service.

Thank you for your own going support, we are all in this together.
MartinBellamy,
Chairman

In the news

Gravity Chairman, Martin Bellamy discusses regional investment with the BBC

Gravity Chairman, MartinBellamy, spoke with BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth about the need for greater regional investment from Government, enabling the South West’s infrastructure and mobility offering to develop in line with the rest of the UK. Gravity is proud to represent the SouthWest ambition to change the UK economy into a clean one. The interview aired on BBC 10 O’clock news on March 1st.

Click here to view the clip.

Progress Update

Link Road

Despite the wettest February on record, the construction of the Link Road is on track. The majority of the road has been surfaced; the focus of construction has shifted to the three roundabouts between the A39 and the entrance at Gravity. We have attained permission from Somerset county council to work on weekends to ensure that the Woolavington Road will reopen by Easter.

To stay up to date with progress on the link road, visit the Alun Griffiths community page or join us for one of the regular community drop-in sessions held at The 37 club.

Click here to view our progress.

Events

Village Enhancement Scheme

On Wednesday, 11^th March, Gravity and Stantec hosted the Public Consultation for the proposed village enhancement scheme for Puriton and Woolavington. The recent event which outlined proposed plans for a foot and cycle path between the villages along with other improvements was met with a generally positive response from residents. A resident described the event as a “very informative afternoon”. Continued developments of the scheme can be found on our community page.

Link Road Community Drop in

Gravity and Alun Griffiths are continuing to co-host the link road community drop-ins. This gives residents a chance to meet the team and see the progress of the link road in person. The last drop-in that was held at the 37 Club on Wednesday 11th February was well attended by residents and local businesses.

Movers and Shakers – “How does the real estate marketplace deliver change?”

Gravity Chairman, Martin Bellamy, delivered a keynote speech at a Movers & Shakers event in Bristol. He outlined how Gravity will look beyond office space and ensure that the working environments created are rooted in the wellbeing of the people that will use the site.