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Look Ahead – Q2 2024

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April – June

As we move into Spring, the Gravity site will become more active as we transition into delivery, the two landowners at the Gravity smart campus, This is Gravity (TIG) and Agratas will coordinate and jointly communicate where possible.

Site works

  • The work to recycle concrete from the site and crush it for re-use will continue. 
  • In line with our material management strategy the import of recycled aggregate from the Hinkley C connection resumed in March.
  • The import of aggregate to meet occupier needs as required will continue.
  • TIG contractors will be monitoring the new landscaping on the link road and replacing as necessary.
  • In preparation for the construction phase, we are installing environmental monitoring equipment to report on noise and air conditions.
  • The campus approach to reuse and recycling seeks to reduce traffic movements.
  • Consultant site visits and ground investigations will also take place. 
  • TIG archaeology investigations will take place on part of the site outside of the original ROF fence in late April/early May for about 12 weeks. 
  • Test piling for Agratas began on March 26th, it will take place for short periods throughout the day (08:00 – 18:00), Monday to Friday, measures to keep noise to a minimum and to limit excess dust on site by using water tankers if conditions are dry. Test piling will last for approximately three weeks.
  • Piling will commence once the test piling has been completed with the final piles designed. Further information on this will be provided by Agratas.

Other matters

  • Agratas will be hosting a series of public drop-in events between April 27 and May 2. Event leaflets have been shared, updates communicated via Agratas’ WhatsApp channel and information listed on Puriton and Woolavington Parish Council websites. Click here for further information about the Bridgwater event on April 30.
  • Multiple LDO compliance submissions will be progressed in the coming months for various uses across the site.
  • TIG will continue with its work to replace the leisure facilities currently hosted by the 37 Club. Plans for the new facility are on display at the current 37 Club.
  • Submissions to Somerset Council and other regulators on planning and technical matters will continue as appropriate.

Contact

Gravity’s New ‘37’ Confirmed

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Gravity’s New ‘37’ Confirmed

This is Gravity Ltd has confirmed that it will be replacing the leisure facilities currently hosted at the 37 Club at the former Royal Ordnance Factory, on the new Gravity smart campus. The new leisure facility will be open to the public as well as the campus workforce.

Martin Bellamy, Chairman and CEO of Gravity, said: ‘After very careful consideration, we have agreed that the replacement of the core 37 club facilities, should remain on the Gravity smart campus site. We believe this is important for historic reasons to ensure an ongoing legacy from the former ROF facility and to ensure the leisure facilities remain immediately accessible to the villages and communities adjoining the campus’.

A meeting was held with the members and community to discuss initial plans. These plans have been revised to take on board the views expressed, and the plans will be displayed at the 37 club for member information over the coming weeks.

The name of the new facility has not yet been agreed and we welcome member feedback on this: our working title is ‘The 37’.

The new facility will be directly connected to the Village Enhancement Scheme – a walking and cycling route to connect Puriton and Woolavington villages and will include a café, bar, skittles and snooker facilities and will be open to the community during the day and at weekends.

A planning compliance submission under the Gravity Local Development Order (LDO) will be made to the Council in April and we anticipate work will start work in the summer and the new facility will be open early in the new year.

All skittles bookings will be honoured and moved across and we will work with staff, members and the community to manage the change.

Pete Bamber, current tenant of the 37 Club confirmed ‘I will be working closely with the Gravity team to ensure a smooth transition’.  

The current building, originally intended as a temporary, has consent for demolition as part of the campus LDO, resulting in an obligation to replace the facilities to ensure leisure facilities are retained.

We hope that the new 37 will be open to both existing and new customers to sustain it into the future.

About Gravity

Gravity is the UK’s leading strategic smart campus, anchored by the 40Gwh Agratas Gigafactory. It is now a catalyst for economic transformation across the South West. Delivering the campus will support transport decarbonisation and fast-track the UK’s electrification goals.

Gravity is at the heart of an innovation ecosystem and is the platform of choice to stimulate home-grown advanced battery manufacturing, it offers unrivalled connectivity, planning flexibility and access to world-class assets and talent pool with expertise in research and development in clean growth – underpinning the ability to serve a multitude of customers across all sectors in the transition to a net zero economy.

For more information about the Gravity Campus visit thisisgravity.co.uk

Look Ahead – Q1 2024

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As we emerge from the Winter months work at the Gravity site will ramp up and the community will see more activity. This is a welcome sign as the site moves into implementation.

There are now two landowners at the Gravity smart campus and works will be coordinated and activity communicated jointly where possible. This is Gravity (TIG) who secured the Local Development Order remain as one landowner. Other occupiers will be announced in due course.

Planned Site Works

  • The work to recycle concrete from the site and crush it for re-use will continue.
  • Import of recycled aggregate from the Hinkley C connection project will also resume (weather dependent) towards the end of March.
  • Import of aggregate to meet occupier needs as required.
  • TIG contractors will be monitoring the new landscaping on the link road and replacing as necessary.
  • Tree works on site will take place before bird nesting season to prepare for implementation.
  • The campus approach to re-use and recycling seeks to reduce traffic movements.
  • Consultant site visits, ground investigations will also take place.
  • TIG Archaeology investigations will take place on part of the site outside of the original ROF fence, late March / early April for about 12 weeks.

Other matters

  • TIG will continue to be represented locally by Claire Pearce as Director of Planning and Economic Development, Paul Lowndes as Programme Director on site, and Rob Stevens providing communications support. We welcome Stuart Houlet to the Gravity family as Head of Planning for TIG.
  • TIG will continue with its work to replace the leisure facilities currently hosted by the 37 Club.
  • Submissions to Somerset Council and other regulators on planning and technical matters will continue as appropriate.

View as PDF

View previous look-ahead documents.

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.

View as PDF

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 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.

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.“

Gravity supports the launch of local STEM initiative

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Gravity Smart Campus is proud to have partnered with Bridgwater United FC and Community Sports Trust in launching the Gravity Sphero provision using Sphero Sports Robots, an innovative STEM education tool.

The launch event which was well attended by local schools, learning trusts, local and county councillors, charitable organisations, and local media who heard on the significant importance of this project from guest speakers Martin Bellamy (Chairman and CEO of Gravity), Andy Berry (Principal of Bridgwater & Taunton College), Adam Murry (CEO of BUFC) and Matt Mead (Sphero Sports).

Gravity Sphero launch attendees getting to grips with the technology

Gravity’s commitment to our Clean & Inclusive Growth, stimulating transformational change and enabling a new era of clean growth to create opportunities for local communities and business, is core to the success of the development.

Through implementing our Environmental and Social Governance policy, the Gravity team are focused on creating social value locally. The Gravity Sphero project launch marks the next step in our work, offering an innovative way for children and young people in the local area to learn coding and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) skills, supporting the delivery of the national curriculum

Uniting Football, Robotics and Educational STEM activities, inspires hands-on fun learning through practical football-based coding games with interactive and engaging programming activities, to teach key transferable and digital skills, already enjoyed by 40,000 educators and 3.5 million users worldwide.

Gravity and Bridgwater United Community Sports Trust have formed a partnership to give schools and young people the chance to join this fantastic and engaging movement.

Claire Pearce, Director for Planning and Economic Development at Gravity commented “The Gravity team is focused on generating genuine social value to make a real difference localy, supporting young people to strengthen personal resilience and inspiring them about future careers.

Looking ahead, the campus will host high-tech companies and new jobs so we must look ahead to how we can  build a local talent pipeline to access those opportunities. We therefore need to promote  STEM to help prepare students for the opportunities ahead and to provide them with the tools and skills to thrive and succeed.

We are delighted to support the Gravity sphero project and launch a new learning through play initiative with Bridgwater United Community Sports Trust. This is an important step towards growing a local workforce at Gravity – with our young people at its heart”

Commenting on this partnership Sarah Murry, Bridgwater United CST added “Since our first meeting with Gravity they have been a great supporter of the Trust as our visions for community partnership completely align. The synergy between the two organisations is very strong and we are delighted that with their support we can revolutionise the STEM education and play offering to children and young people in Bridgwater.”

Gravity is proud to enable Bridgwater United FC to become the only UK Non-League football club and the only club in the South-West Region to offer this innovative STEM programme.

This exciting new project, combines innovative technologies and sport to combat the recognised international shortage of STEM skills and young people going into STEM Careers – the STEM Gap.

For more information and to book your school taster session visit www.bridgwaterunitedcst.com/gravityspheros/ or contact Community@bridgwaterunitedcst.com

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