An expansion of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas headquarters has been given the go ahead by West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) Strategic Planning Committee at their meeting on Tuesday (9 January), anticipating millions of pounds of economic investment and over 500 multiple skill set jobs in Brackley.
The site, located on St James Road, is currently the headquarters for the Mercedes Formula one team and is where the cars are designed and constructed with engineering work being carried out through their Applied Science engineering capability, which conducts engineering design for external clients. These projects include the design of the next British Challenger for the Americas Cup.
A key aim of the planning application is to create a parkland campus setting, which will result in the removal of much of the car parking that dominates the site and replace it with trees and landscaping to create a site appropriate for a Formula 1 headquarters.
The plans propose to remove the existing car park and replace with a single deck car park featuring an under croft and a surface level car park, together with vehicular access to the Mercedes site from Lauda Drive and St James Road. In addition, there will be a covered walkway, refurbished bridge, new pedestrian and cycle bridge, cycle hub and parking spaces with solar panels.
The refurbishment will also see the introduction of a three-storey marketing centre and health and wellbeing hub complete with restaurant, gym, yoga space and other facilities for Mercedes employees.
Mercedes has plans to expand its operations on site which could include further diversification away from Formula one and involve expanding the workforce from 1400 to 1900 people over the next five years. The company also has ambitious sustainability objectives to become Net Zero by 2030.
Following extensive consultation with local businesses, the proposals also include works to mitigate the impact of traffic flow in the area by widening Oxford Road and lengthening the right turn lane into St James Road to accommodate an additional 2 cars. Double yellow lines along the northern side of the St James Road and around the turning head will be extended to mitigate unsafe parking and make the area safer for road users.
In addition, alterations will be made to the Oxford Road/Lauda Drive roundabout to provide an additional lane and improvements will be made to the cycle route along Oxford Road.
Cllr Daniel Lister said: “I am delighted that Mercedes has chosen to invest and expand its world-famous motorsport engineering in West Northamptonshire. The site is located in an area which is known for motorsport given the proximity of the Silverstone circuit and our location within Motorsport Valley. This is an area of national significance in the high-tech innovation and high-performance engineering sectors.
“These plans promise fantastic opportunities for economic growth and inward investment in Brackley and support our strive to be a leader in driving innovation while supporting business growth and building a strong, responsive and thriving local economy.
“This development is likely to generate around 500 new full-time jobs with a predicted expenditure of approximately £70m which would further feed into the local economy and create additional full time jobs during construction. Our Economic Growth & Inward Investment Team have been working closely with Mercedes to deliver impactful benefits to the local labour market, including local recruitment, school engagement and more.”
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