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Look Ahead – Q2 2024

17th April 202415th April 2024 by Rob Stevens

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 Newsletter: Click here to subscribe
Email Gravity: info@thisisgravity.co.uk

Email Agratas: communityuk@agratas.net
Agratas WhatsApp: Click here to join

Bounce Forward continues to deliver resilience training as part of the Gravity Skills Charter in partnership with Bridgwater & Taunton College

30th April 202430th March 2024 by Rob Stevens

Bounce Forward continues to deliver resilience training as part of the Local Development Order in partnership with Bridgwater & Taunton College

Lucy Bailey, the Founder of Bounce Forward, conducted a workshop as part of the Gravity Smart Campus development which benefits from an integrated Environment and Social Governance (ESG) policy and Skills Charter. This provides a focus on local training and development to shape a future workforce to meet occupier needs

Bounce Forward is a UK charity home to experts in psychological fitness. The workshop focused on the ‘Resilient Futures‘ programme, which is designed to equip young adults aged 16 to 25 with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive.

The Resilient Futures session hosted at Bridgwater & Taunton College is part of Bounce Forward’s “train the trainer” model which equips local stakeholders with their own “Resilient Futures” champions. The provision will support the development of a future workforce for Gravity and wider Somerset.

Gravity’s Claire Pearce and Salamanca Group’s Esther Croft were joined in attendance by staff from across Bridgwater & Taunton College, representatives from Stantec and Bristol Port.

The core focus of the session was to build mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, using hope theory as the structure to the programme. The content is appropriate for schools and colleges and can be extended to support the workforce including employers working with young people, indeed everyone can benefits from the principles covered. This session continues to build upon the Gravity sponsorship of Bounce Forward during the pandemic to work in local schools and colleges, this training will help to further embed and strengthen skills to develop a workforce for the future.

100% of session attendees agreed or strongly agreed with four impact statements:

I found the training useful personally.
It has prepared me to facilitate Resilient Futures.
It will be useful for the young adults I work with.
I would recommend Resilient Futures to others.

Ideas for implementation included; for delivery of training to staff and students, applying the content to future STEM events, aligning with other offers where Resilience Futures would complement, and a working group has been established to plan dissemination strategically.

Feedback from attendees

‘What I’ve learnt today will be invaluable to all, on a personal level, educational and occupational. Thank you for this opportunity to develop my skills in order to better support others.”

“I liked the fact that it is about empowering students and giving us a tool kit to help them improve their psychological fitness.”

“Particularly enjoyed the variety of attendees and differing experiences.”

This is Gravity’s Director – Planning & Economic Development, Claire Pearce commented: “Seeing Bounce Forward continue its important work following their introduction to the locality in 2021 is important to us and continues to build a positive legacy. Building the confidence of local young people is a critical component in the creation of a happy healthy workforce of tomorrow. We look forward to seeing further partnerships between stakeholders and schools to support our young people into the future”

Bounce Forward Founder & Chair, Lucy Bailey commented: “It was wonderful to have a broad mix of organisations and experience in the room together. So many rich conversations and having been equipped with a full suite of learning resources, those attending shared lots of creative ideas for taking the work forward. What we offer at Bounce Forward will add value and complement the full range of support already available to students at the college and I am excited to see how it evolves.”

Bridgwater & Taunton College Executive Project Lead, Chris Ridgwell commented “We were pleased to be able to host this event through the Local Skills Improvement Fund; bringing together employers from our region who are supporting young people as they begin their careers.

Bounce Forward’s expertise has given our employees the skills and abilities to support their colleagues, demonstrating the significant impact of such partnerships on local skills development.”

Learn more about Bounce Forward’s work in Bridgwater here.

Visit the Bounce Forward website here.

About Bounce Forward

Bounce Forward is a national charity delivering inspiring and practical train the trainer programmes to develop the next generations of psychologically fit children who will become psychologically fit adults. Our training programmes engage teachers, parents and others around children and young people to develop psychological fitness. Psychological fitness combines mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, both key attributes needed for success in the 21st century. We provide a framework of skills, based on a development model so that young people are better placed to face the complexities of tomorrow and make the most of their future. Our core offer is a five-year, evidence-based curriculum that can be embedded in the secondary school offer. Our impact and passion go beyond the delivery of training and teaching resources – at the heart of our work is research and we are driving a movement to influence UK policy around education to form a positive system of change. (Charity number: 1170591).

Gravity’s New ‘37’ Confirmed

8th April 202420th March 2024 by Rob Stevens

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

31st January 2024 by Rob Stevens

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

8th April 20245th October 2023 by Rob Stevens

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

7th October 20244th September 2023 by Rob Stevens

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

8th April 202424th August 2023 by Rob Stevens

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 16^th 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

8th April 202420th March 2023 by Rob Stevens

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

8th April 20241st February 2023 by Rob Stevens

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

8th April 202419th January 2023 by Rob Stevens

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.“

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