North West Leicestershire Council has refused St Modwen’s logistics warehouse scheme at Castle Donington in the East Midlands.
The 109.2 acre green field site was subject to an outline application, which would have seen the development of 995,000ft2 logistics and industrial space providing some 1,200 jobs.
While the council noted that there was a shortage of sites for industrial and logistics development in the region it refused the application on the grounds that it “would have a significantly adverse impact on the appearance and character of the landscape”.
The design and access statement on the application noted: “The supply of sites in North West Leicestershire, and the wider region, has rapidly declined over recent years through speculative development and occupiers committing to large scale developments on key sites.”
Indeed according to latest research by Avison Young take-up of large grade A warehouses over 100,000ft2 amounted to 25.8 million ft2, 73% up on the five-year, six-monthly average and a staggering 46.1 million ft2 over the past 12 months. In the East Midlands alone 9.3m ft2 was taken up in first half of the year. With such high take up level it is not surprising that there is now a corresponding reduction in supply with standing stock reduced by 43% since the end of 2020.
It is not known yet whether St Modwen will appeal.
