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Community News

Look Ahead – October 2023

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The Gravity team continues to work across many workstreams to ensure that the site is ready for mobilisation and implementation of a large-scale advanced manufacturing facility. All workstreams listed in our Summer 2023 Look Ahead document are still ongoing.

Our primary update is to notify local communities that in accordance with our planning permission that on on-site works will be taking place on Saturdays 8am-6pm across the month of October, from Saturday the 7th through till Saturday the 28th.

Saturday working (7th, 14th, 21st, 28th)

  • Due to fluctuating weather conditions throughout the year, Gravity aims to maximise the use of the remaining fair weather.
  • All on-site activities strictly comply with Condition 2 of the planning permission ref: 42/22/00007. No work is being conducted within 500 meters of any residential property.
  • Somerset Council is fully informed about the temporary adjustments to the working hours on-site for October.
  • No HGV deliveries or imports are scheduled during these days. Work will be halted if weather conditions are not favourable.

On-site works

  • Ongoing processing of onsite materials
  • Breaking up of concrete in the ground and cutting and filling to achieve plateau levels
  • Site preparation activities remain ongoing
  • Site maintenance works comprising site security, road cleaning, grass mowing, fence repairs are continuing as required.

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Gravity – Look Ahead Summer 2023

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The Gravity team continues to work across multiple workstreams to ensure that the site is ready for mobilisation and implementation of a large-scale advanced manufacturing facility.

Recycling Material

  • The site team continues to recycle concrete ‘won’ or found on site and this is being crushed to be re-used on the site during construction.
  • The Kelson Sparks team are working with Gravity to recycle the material from the National Grid Hinkley C connection project temporary haul roads to store on-site for use in construction. This ensures many lorries of aggregate are being taken off the local roads.
  • Haulage routes utilise Enterprise Way as well as the secondary access to the East of the site, to avoid unnecessary impacts on local communities. In 2023 alone, Enterprise Way has removed over 6,500 HGV journeys from local village roads.

Other on-site activities

  • Site maintenance works comprising site security, road cleaning, grass mowing, and fence repairs are continuing as required.
  • Site preparation is ongoing. Approximately half the site has been cleared of bramble and other brash so that ground works can commence.
  • Ecological management continues on a daily basis to monitor badger activity at the boundaries of the fenced site. Our ecologists translocated the water vole population last spring and Gravity continues activity to ensure that the site rhynes are clear and do not present new habitat opportunities whilst construction is ongoing.

Link Road landscaping

  • The landscaped area along the link road is under Gravity ownership. The landscaping works are part of the Alun Griffiths Contract and the contractor has an obligation to maintain the landscaping and replace any failed planting for a period of 2 years after completion.
  • The implementation of new landscaping is often challenging on any scheme and the unpredictable and extreme shifts in the weather have made this more so, therefore the landscaping will be monitored and replaced as required.

Village enhancement scheme – Woolavington cycle & footpath

  • A timeline for the delivery of the Cycle and footpath linking Puriton with Woolavington will be generated upon the issuance of the formal ‘completion certificate’ for Enterprise Way from Somerset County Council. Click here to view the planning submission for the proposed path.

What to expect

  • Hosting of visitors to the site.
  • Increased levels of activity on site.
  • Increased HGV deliveries to the site, vehicles will be using the purpose-built access road ‘Enterprise Way.

Contact us:

• In event of queries please contact Gravity directly at info@thisisgravity.co.uk
• To view our planning documentation please click here.

The Gravity Zipwire is open

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Gravity is proud to have supported Puriton Parish Council in the funding of a brand new zip wire to complement the new village assault course, located at the Puriton Sports Centre.

The new adventure area opened to the public on Wednesday 16th August at a ceremony attended by Claire Pearce, Gravity’s Director – Planning & Economic Development and Paul Lowndes, Gravity’s Programme director.


The adventure area consists of a durable and sustainably built wooden assault course with a variety of organic and challenging obstacles for local older children to enjoy, accompanied by the Zip wire called ‘Gravity’.

Claire Pearce, reflecting on the assault course opening “The Gravity team is thrilled with the final outcome of this adventure area including the assault course and zip wire. We are immensely proud to contribute the matched funding required to help the sports centre team and parish council deliver these facilities. We would also like to thank our consultants Keystone and Ecology Solutions who provided voluntary services to help make this happen. A great team effort.

This play area is part of our ongoing commitment to creating social value locally, ensuring that our legacy initiative continues to ensure the 37 Club facilities are replaced and embedded in the wider area.”

Simon Langley, Puriton Parish Council “This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication from the project team who worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality. We also want to thank Bristol-based Touchwood for designing, manufacturing and delivering our vision in a sustainable manner.

We truly hope that everyone enjoys the great outside adventure areas we have installed, this really makes a visit to the Puriton Sports Centre a worthwhile trip. The Parish council are extremely proud of this latest accomplishment to our ever-expanding “places to go, learn and places to play” in our community.”

Gravity’s Sphero STEM Initiative reaches over 500 young people across Bridgwater

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This is Gravity is proud to share that within two school terms, the Gravity Sphero STEM initiative has reached over 500 children and young people in Bridgwater, delivered through Bridgwater United Community Trust. Weekly sessions are delivered in Woolavington, East Huntspill and the surrounding areas, across term time, afterschool clubs and various holiday camps.

Predominantly, the students reached are aged between 8-12 years old and are taught in class sizes of 10-12. This enables students to work individually and in pairs, providing a blended platform to use their own initiatives as well as team-building skills.

Everyone starts their Gravity Sphero journey in ‘Play mode’ to familiarise themselves with the robots and their abilities to understand basic instructions. Many master the basics quickly and keenly progress onto draw & block coding within ‘Sphero Edu mode’, where elements of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) dovetail.

Recent games include Bull Dog, football matches using tennis balls, practicing weight of passing and shooting and obstacle courses and mazes. Through play, the students are consistently developing key transferrable skills, they are gripped [EC2]  and never want it to be packing up time.

Logan from Woolavington Primary school “This is the best club in the world”

Dan Rogers Bridgwater United Sports Trust Operations Manager said: “The Sphero programme has really developed our delivery giving the young people we work with a chance to learn about technology and coding in a fun, play environment. We are proud to be the first non-league club to use this technology and we can see the difference it is making to the young people we work with on a weekly basis. Sphero club is their favorite part of the week and it’s ours too!”

Gravity Director of Planning & Economic Development Claire Pearce said “The Gravity ambition is to stimulate innovation and test new ideas, therefore I warmly welcome the commitment of the Bridgwater United Sports Trust in partnering with us on the Gravity Sphero initiative. I am really excited to see the positive response from local children and hope it will inspire young people into careers in science, technology, and engineering at Gravity in the future.

Gravity funding enables Puriton park playground open to the public 

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Gravity has been pleased to work with Sedgemoor District Council to fund the delivery of a new and improved local play area for Purtion Park, located on Manse Lane. The new playground opened to the public on Friday 17th March. It consists of a bespoke play tower with a slide that can accommodate 24 children aged 2 and up, with an additional 3m x 1m trampoline suitable for all abilities and accommodates a wheelchair.

Aligned with Gravity’s ambition for clean growth and its commitment to environmental and social governance, sustainably sourced materials for the playground were a priority, the dark teal panels and posts were made from 100% post-consumer ocean recycled waste and 100% recycled textiles respectively. 

Gravity worked in close partnership with Puriton Parish Council and Sedgemoor District Council to make this community asset a reality. This is part of Gravity’s ongoing commitment to creating social value locally, ensuring that our legacy initiative to replace and enhance children’s play equipment beyond the existing 37 Club.

As a next step on legacy delivery, our consultants have kindly volunteered to help Puriton Parish Council to clear land for the new assault course. With further Gravity funding to match other local resources, the Parish will now be able to commission this new facility for older children.

Gravity – Look Ahead Spring 2023

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The Gravity team continues to work across multiple workstreams to ensure that the site is ready for mobilisation and implementation of a large-scale advanced manufacturing facility.

Onsite Activities

  • Ecological management continues on a daily basis through our ecological clerk of works who monitor wildlife activity at the boundaries of the fenced site and conditions onsite. Gravity continues to ensure that the site rhynes are clear and do not present new habitat opportunities. This is consistent with our licencing requirements and ensures there is no barrier to construction and protects species.
  • Site maintenance works comprising site-security, road cleaning, grass mowing, fence repairs are continuing as required.
  • Site preparation is ongoing. Approximately half the site has been cleared of bramble and other brash so that groundwork can commence. Site-sourced concrete and brickwork is being processed for re-use.
  • Importing of recycled stone from the National Grid T-Pylon sites is scheduled to recommence in late March, this will result in increased HGV deliveries to the site, vehicles will use the purpose-built access road ‘Enterprise Way’ to reduce disruption to local communities.

Link Road Landscaping

  • Alun Griffiths’s sub-contractor has spent the winter months planting trees and shrubs consisting of a mix of native species to support biodiversity along Enterprise Way.
  • The landscaping efforts are nearing completion.

Village Enhancement Scheme – Woolavington Cycle & Footpath

  • A timeline for the delivery of the Cycle & Footpath linking Puriton with Woolavington will be generated upon the issuance of the formal ‘completion certificate’ for Enterprise Way from Somerset County Council.
  • Click here to view the planning submission for the proposed path.

Community

  • We continue to work with local organisations to ensure the wider area is maintained to welcome new investors to the area to create new economic opportunities for communities.

Contact us:

• In event of queries please contact Gravity directly at info@thisisgravity.co.uk
• To view our planning documentation please click here.

Bridgwater & Taunton College built Bat House delivered to Gravity

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During January Gravity took delivery of a new Bat House which was built in partnership with Bridgwater & Taunton College (BTC) and our Ecology Clerk of Works, Ecology Solutions.

BTC students on Construction programmes at the Taunton campus constructed the Bat House and their Welding students on an ECITB Welding Scholarship manufactured the steel frame to make it transportable and mobile. The guide specification and further expert support was supplied by Ecology Solutions.

Having real projects for students to work on gives them a great sense of achievement and participation in the local community, as well as a chance to test out their newly acquired skills.

The Bat House is designed to provide a safe and secure habitat for the bats and ensures that this important species can continue to thrive in the local ecosystem

Gravity supplier ‘Stantec’ introduces Woolavington students to STEM opportunities

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In December Gravity supplier, Stantec, visited Woolavington Village Primary School to challenge Years 3-6 pupils with its Gravity Green Bridge Lego STEM Activity.

The STEM activity introduced engineering to the Woolavington pupils, by using Lego to familiarise pupils to the construction of the ‘Green Bridge’ over Enterprise Way near Puriton and Woolavington. As well as introducing engineering as a career, the activity aimed to help build soft skills such as communication, creativity and teamwork.

During the 50-minute activity, Stantec introduced pupils to the bridge-building challenge using an interactive presentation giving them an insight into civil engineering and the Gravity ‘Green Bridge’. The pupils were split into smaller teams of 4-5. The session was split into  the Construction, Testing and Reflection stages.

The Woolavington students enthusiastically built their Green Bridges to span a road on their team mats. Using their problem-solving and teamwork skills, many exciting and creative bridge designs were constructed. Once the bridges were constructed, each team tested their bridge strength with a variety of weights and with a Hot Wheels truck which had to pass freely beneath the bridge.

The activity concluded with a short recap asking pupils what they had learned from the activity. Each of the teams then collected their “Outstanding Engineers” award certificates.

Claire Pearce, Director of Planning & Economic Development at This is Gravity commented “Encouraging young local talent into the world of STEM and its opportunities is critical to delivering long-term local employment opportunities at Gravity. Engagement with our suppliers such as Stantec to deliver these types of sessions in local schools is just part of Gravity’s wider approach to creating genuine social value.“

Knowle Hill Briefing

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Introduction

The purpose of this briefing note is to provide an update on the progress of the Knowle Hill re-development by This is Gravity Ltd, for a high quality, low impact housing scheme of six dwellings reflecting the highest standards in environmentally led architecture, which will be an asset to the locality.

Background

The Knowle Hill site forms a part of the former estate of the ROF, which has now been designated as an Enterprise Zone and is subject of an adopted Local Development Order (LDO). Knowle Hill is located separately from the main Gravity site and houses the now redundant filtration plant site, which served the former ROF until 2008 when operations ceased.  The filtration plant provided water to the ROF site, fed by a gravity system downhill (northwards), as well as extracting water and holding it from the King Sedgemoor Drain.

The delivery of homes on this site, of a high quality and design, will support the wider objectives of Gravity and the locality to attract high-value jobs and international investment to Sedgemoor and Somerset.

Following positive pre-application discussions with Sedgemoor District Council, initial plans were drawn up and consulted on in September 2020 where a generally positive response was received from the community. No objections or comments were raised by the Parish Council’s or local community which required the scheme to be redesigned. However, at the time an application was not subsequently submitted as This is Gravity Ltd decided to focus on attracting occupiers and achieving the LDO to enable inward investment into the area and high quality and high skilled jobs. Following adoption of the LDO on 22 February 2022, the Knowle Hill scheme has progressed again.

The scheme review and refinement has addressed matters raised during the pre-application with Sedgemoor District Council.

Proposals

The vision for the site is to create a small and sensitive development reflecting the highest standards in environmentally led architecture, reusing a redundant brownfield site which has been vacant for over 14 years. The development will maximise passive design principles, the opportunities to reduce the need for energy and will utilise a range of renewable energy methods.

The new build elements will be provided on the same footprint as the existing buildings, that are proposed to be demolished, to limit impact locally and on the wider landscape. The existing materials across the site will be recycled and reused within the redevelopment of the site. The dwellings are designed to sit low within the landscape, utilising the depressions created by the existing structures. Where the dwellings rise above the existing buildings on site, they resemble clusters of farm buildings, and thus sit naturally within the landscape.

Benefits of the Proposals and how it Responds to Consultation Responses Received

  • The dwellings are designed to sit low within the landscape, utilising the depressions created by the existing structures, incorporating parts of those structures where they can be retained.
  • The design has been informed by the landscape character, the long-range views and the microclimate.
  • The dwellings have been sensitively designed using patterns of built form found within the landscape, for example neighbouring dwellings and farmstead buildings.
  • Landscaping and planting have been designed to reduce views into the site from the wider landscape and to increase biodiversity.
  • There will be a 51.82% biodiversity net gain across the site, which is a significant increase.
  • Native trees and plants will be used across the site and a wildflower meadow will be provided for communal use.
  • Brown living roofs are to be used to soften the development further and further enhance the natural elements of the site. It will be left to naturally self-seed with plants via the wind and wildlife.
  • The dwellings combine passive design principles with on-site renewable energy generation to reduce its climate footprint.
  • The development integrates to the existing nearby settlements through the bridle way and improved site access.  A permissive path for the bridleway will be provided running alongside the existing access point.
An application has been submitted to SDC as the Local Planning Authority and formal consultation will follow in the near future.

Gravity – Look Ahead Summer 2022

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Since securing the adoption of the Local Development Order, the team have been continuing to engage with potential occupiers and emphasise the site’s‘ ready state’ for accelerated delivery.

The archaeological investigations have been completed and there is a robust approach to ecological management through the appropriate licencing.

The landscaping of the link road, called Enterprise Way, will take place in Autumn 2022 (the next planting season).

In parallel to this, work is ongoing to set up the systems, processes and delivery team to enable implementation with the Councils.

Early Works comprising site clearance, cut & fill excavation and stockpiling of imported piling mat material and piling mat material crushed on-site, has commenced with the appointment of Kelston Sparkes as Principle Contractor, Ashfield Solutions as Principle Designer and Environmental Clerk of Works, Ecology Solutions as Ecological Clerk of Works, Turner & Townsend as Project Manager and QS, Stantec as Civil Engineer and Cunningham Safety Consultants to provide independent Safety, Health and Environmental Audit Services.
The team is working under the remediation consent, recently modified and approved, to progress the Works and other associated onsite activities, over the summer months.

Onsite Activities

Importing recycled stone
Kelston Sparkes is importing repurposed construction-ready stone from the adjacent National Grid “T Pylon” Construction sites and stockpiling material, all of which will be used in a piling mat as part of the early works programme. Haulage routes will utilise the new Link Road as well as the secondary access to the East of the site, to avoid unnecessary impacts on local communities.


Repurposing existing concrete slab
Kelston Sparks will also be breaking up existing concrete slabs on-site and crushing concrete for reuse in piling mat.

The best use of material between two adjacent major projects and recycling of material on the site is part of a very significant Gravity initiative to Recover, Recycle, Repurpose and Reuse (4R’s) material and significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the Gravity Development. These recycled materials will enable fast-tracked delivery solutions to potential large-scale occupiers.

What to expect

• Hosting of VIP visitors
• Increased levels of activity on site
• Increased HGV deliveries to site vehicles will be using the purpose-built access road ‘Enterprise Way’ to reduce disruption to local communities

Contact us:

• In event of queries please contact Gravity directly at info@thisisgravity.co.uk
• To view our planning documentation please click here.

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