Ascot Imperial College campus to gain new life sciences building

A large science park will be allowed to build a new life science building, demolishing its business centre.

To build at the Imperial College of Science and Technology on Buckhurst Road, applicants needed to meet ‘very special circumstances,’ as it is on the greenbelt.

The science park comprises a cluster of six buildings in the 100-hectre Silwood Park, and makes up about 2.5 hectares of that.

The existing business centre is a single storey building, 8.8m height, and measures approximately 2,135sqm. This would be demolished, with the remaining buildings refurbished.

It would be replaced with a three-storey building, 15.4m tall and covering 1,753sqm.

The site currently has 211 car parking spaces. The scheme proposes a total of 224, of which 45 will be provided with electric vehicle charging points.

It will also provide for 100 secure bicycle spaces in two secure units.

Altogether, the buildings would have a combined floorspace of about 4,000sqm.

Officers considered its size; the life science building will be ‘materially larger’ than the building it would replace.

In addition, the proposed new café ‘would represent inappropriate development in the greenbelt, by definition,’ officers wrote.

But the proposal ‘represents a significant benefit in terms of employment and education’, given its the relationship with Imperial College London.

The proposal has been designed to ‘rejuvenate the existing science park and to redevelop the business centre to provide a life sciences building that is to provide for the specific needs of the science and research professions.’

The council ascribed this ‘significant weight’ and also gave ‘moderate weight’ to sustainability benefits and benefits to biodiversity.

Overall, the conclusion was that there are ‘substantial benefits’ to the scheme which ‘clearly outweigh the harm to the greenbelt.’

See all plans with reference 21/02508/FULL.