A huge American healthcare technology firm has unveiled plans for a large ‘campus’ development on the outskirts of Bristol, which could kickstart a whole new ‘garden village’ being created with thousands of homes being built.
Epic Healthcare has its UK headquarters just off the Redcliffe roundabout near the centre of Bristol, but has told villagers in Long Ashton that it wants to build a new out-of-town campus to house all its workers, and expand beyond the 350 or so who work for the firm already.
And the chosen location for this new campus is what developers have called the ‘Northern Triangle’ - and area of land off the Long Ashton bypass, that is currently pasture fields and includes the home of the village cricket club. The first big public consultation meeting is taking place on Monday next week in the village.
Read next: Golf course near Bristol could be redeveloped into new village with 2,500 homes
Epic Healthcare first presented their ideas last July at a meeting of Long Ashton Parish Council, and representations were made on their behalf by property agent Savills, in a submission to the North Somerset Local Plan debate.
The land in question is a triangle with the main A370 on the west side, the mainline Bristol-Taunton railway on the south side and includes land on either side of the recently built South Bristol Link Road on the north east side, with Ashton Vale’s industrial in the far east corner.
Plans have been proposed for new homes in those fields and on the land further south for decades, but in the past couple of years, Taylor Wimpey has proposed building a new ‘garden village’ of up to 2,500 new homes on the Woodspring Golf Club to the south, which would include developing this ‘Northern Triangle’, which separates Long Ashton and the south west corner of Bristol at Ashton Vale.
In its submission on behalf of Taylor Wimpey, to North Somerset’s planners, Savills said it wanted to build a new secondary school on this land, and that would go well next door to Epic Healthcare’s ‘major campus’.
“Epic Systems Corporation, a multi-national software company in the healthcare sector, has its global headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin. The company currently employs circa 350 people in various office space within Bristol city centre but is expecting further growth over the next few years and want to bring all their UK-based staff together in one location. Epic has selected the Bristol area as the preferred destination for its regional campus where they are planning continued growth,” wrote Savills.
“Having initially considered a large number of options, Epic has decided that its preferred destination is the land to the south west of the Long Ashton Park & Ride, between the A370, the South Bristol Link Road and the railway line. This represents a truly exceptional opportunity for North Somerset to benefit from a very significant level of inward investment, deliver new employment in the medium term, enhance the economic growth potential across the remainder of the authority area in the long-term and secure a substantial boost to income through business rates,” Savills’ submission added.
“Moreover, Epic is passionate about creating an environment that attracts and retains its highly qualified and skilled workforce. To that end they are committed to significant investment in a campus that will be exceptionally well designed, with a goal of achieving net zero carbon in construction and operations and set within a well landscaped environment. There is also the potential to fund and deliver a train station as part of the campus on the line between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol Temple Meads which would benefit not only sustainable travel movements to the employment campus but provide a service that benefits the existing residents of Long Ashton and the new community,” they added.
Savills also explained to North Somerset’s planners that they couldn’t move to Weston - where planners are encouraging businesses to go. “Epic has very specific locational requirements to match its business model and company ethos. Like many office based businesses, Epic is looking for an opportunity close to Bristol. Locations beyond the outer boundary of the green belt at Weston for example would simply not be suitable, and therefore this is the only location within North Somerset that they would consider. The development would nevertheless have the potential to enhance economic growth opportunities elsewhere within North Somerset,” they added.
Epic is a software company that currently employs around 350 in the UK, all of whom would be moved to the new campus if it is built.
It specialises in winning contracts to supply IT systems to healthcare organisations, and in June 2020, announced it had won the contracts to do that for the NHS in Northern Ireland and in Manchester - with deals with a combined total of £445 million.
The public consultation and exhibition is to take place at the Pavilion Suite of Long Ashton Community Centre with two sessions on Monday, June 12 - one from 2pm to 4pm and the second from 6pm to 8pm.
Read next:
- Villagers rejoice as they are spared from hundreds of new houses
- Inquiry to decide on homes plan on Somerset heritage site
To keep up-to-date with the latest South Bristol news, join our community of subscribers with my South Bristol newsletter here.
