National Park headquarters: next stage announced
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which has been leading the search for the permanent headquarters of the New Forest National Park Authority, will appoint a ‘development partner’ to provide the office and lease it back to the National Park Authority.
The appointment process will be competitive and the successful development partner will be required to procure a site from a shortlist or to offer an appropriate alternative.
Two possible sites have been identified – one in Lyndhurst and one in Brockenhurst.
The sites are:
Lyndhurst Park Hotel, Lyndhurst – part of the garden
New Park, Brockenhurst
Development proposals would need to meet the requirements of the National Park Authority’s business, have low environmental impact and achieve the highest design and building standards. The building must be appropriate to the National Park setting and use local materials wherever possible. The office could be either a new building or a refurbishment of existing buildings.
Lindsay Cornish, Chief Executive of the New Forest National Park Authority, said: ‘Scores of potential sites and premises have been considered for a permanent headquarters in an exhaustive search over many months. This included sites outside the National Park, but none was suitable.
‘Towards the end of last year we were very disappointed that a deal for a suitable site fell through at the eleventh hour due to circumstances beyond our control. Our search has confirmed however that the Authority needs to be at the heart of the National Park to do its job effectively and this is one of the key criteria we have set.
‘This is an important step on the road, but there remains some way to go before a permanent headquarters site for the National Park Authority is settled.
‘When the developer applies for planning permission, if the National Park Authority is minded to grant it, the Authority would expect to refer the application to the Secretary of State to decide whether to call it in or leave it to the Authority to make the decision.’
Defra intends to appoint the development partner by mid-2008, with a site being secured during the latter half of 2008, construction in 2009 and completion by mid-2010.
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Notes to editors
1. All media enquiries should be directed to the New Forest National Park Authority: Karen Evans, Communications Officer, 01590 646650, or Martin O’Neill, Director of Information and Visitor Services, 01590 646647, e-mail press@newforestnpa.gov.uk. Site owners will not respond to media enquiries.
2. The headquarters building needs to provide office space for up to 85 staff together with a conference room, meeting rooms and a public reception area.
3. Owners of the shortlisted sites have expressed an informal interest following an approach from Defra’s agents but no formal or detailed negotiations have taken place; the appointed development partner will take the next steps.
4. The potential site at New Park, Brockenhurst, is separate from and unconnected with the recent planning application at New Park which was approved by New Forest National Park Authority’s Planning Development Control Committee on 18 March. The access road which formed part of the application would not be necessary to provide access to the potential National Park Authority headquarters site.
5. Procurement will be through the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). This involves a staged process of advertising the project, seeking expressions of interest, then selecting by prequalification a limited number of tenderers to become the development partner to provide and lease new headquarters offices for occupation by the Authority.
