24.10.2007

Gloucester Quays celebrates the start of work

British Waterways and Peel, the developers behind the £400m Gloucester Quays development, hosted celebrations on the Gloucester Quays site yesterday to mark the start of work on the 60-acre site. Ground clearance for the 100-unit Factory Outlet Centre and the huge Sainsburys just across the Gloucester & Sharpness canal is now well under way.

Gloucester councillors and officers and representatives from all those concerned with getting the massive development project underway joined directors of Gloucester Quays in viewing the latest plans. They then took to the canal for a closer look at the various aspects of the development site, including the residential areas and the new lifting road bridge and the final section of the Inner Relief Road under construction and due to open next Spring.

Addressing his guests, chairman of Gloucester Quays and development director of Peel, Lindsey Ashworth said: “Our mission is to create a world class, mixed use iconic waterfront development of unrivalled quality.”

He went on to say that he was delighted to see work finally underway on a development that had already been ten years in the making. He congratulated the councillors and officials of Gloucester City Council on their foresight and commented that all 36 councillors had supported the scheme. Gloucester Quays, he concluded, was absolutely necessary to accommodate the much needed expansion of the city centre.

Tony Hales, chairman of British Waterways, explained how water linked the various strands of Gloucester Quays and would help integrated it seamlessly with the Historic Docks and the City Centre. Gloucester, he concluded, would become even more of an attraction to visitors with shoppers being drawn into the city and residents drawn to the shops.

The Gloucester Quays timetable sees the lifting road bridge open in the Spring of 2008, Sainsburys open for Christmas 2008 and the Factory Outlet Centre in the Spring of 2009. The Gloucester Quays residential development will be a later phase.