AN MP paved the way for a new business park – by smashing down a building with heavy-duty demolition gear.
Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage took control of the first stages of demolition work at Fareham Business Park in Fareham Road yesterday, destroying part of the first floor of an old building.
The 11.3-acre site is currently home to a 120,000 sq ft building which will be refurbished and developed for future use, and a smaller building, which Ms Dinenage helped destroy.
The owner of the site Oceanic Estates has already been contacted by several local and national businesses who want to use the site.
Ms Dinenage said: ‘It’s a bit different from my normal day at work.
‘This is a site at the moment that doesn’t generate any employment for the area.
‘This is a fantastic opportunity to generate the jobs and enterprise we so desperately need.
‘The latest unemployment figures are very good. They show we’re down six per cent on December 20011 and down nearly three per cent on November 2012, so it’s beginning to go in the right direction.
‘It will bring a new look to parts of Gosport that have been left on the side for so long.’
In place of the building partially demolished by Ms Dinenage, bosses at Oceanic Estates propose to build a new 10,000 sq ft structure.
It will use materials from the one demolished yesterday and could be built to order for one business or house several companies, depending on the interest the company receives.
Harry Hutchinson, director of Oceanic Estates, said the site will have a variety of industries but particularly feature those from the industrial sector.
‘The whole aim here is to provide affordable space built to a high quality with a good size yard – we haven’t got too greedy on the site density,’ he said.
‘The positive thing is that the nationals who have looked, it hasn’t been for relocations, it has been new depots that they have looked at.
‘Rather than moving jobs it will be brand new jobs in the area.
‘Hopefully because of the location and the product we will get more interest.’
John Hughes, managing director at Portsmouth-based Demolition and Salvage Ltd said the rest of the demolition work will take three weeks.
New businesses could move into the larger building on the site in as little as six months when refurbishment and re-cladding works are complete.
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