Storage and Distribution Centre

Carter Jonas’ Planning team in Cambridge has achieved consent for a new storage and distribution centre at Tilbury Docks on behalf of national plant and tool hire company, GAP Group Ltd.

The 6.8 acre site is located adjacent to Tilbury Port, immediately east of a new Amazon Distribution Centre. GAP Group Ltd is the UK’s largest independent equipment hirer, and now a longstanding client of P&D East. GAP has 140 depots nationwide and employs over 1,600 people.

GAP had been seeking a location in east London for some time. The location of the application site, adjacent to Tilbury Port and within an area of significant employment growth and ongoing construction, enables GAP to provide vital services to contractors working in construction and infrastructure not only in Thurrock but across the south east.

As a service provider, GAP is not a direct goods importer. However, GAP invests £80m annually on a wide range of new equipment. By way of illustration, £27m of this is spent on excavators, with GAP the largest importer of Kubota excavators to the UK. Ten to fifteen percent of GAP’s equipment currently arrives at Tilbury Port. The location of a new distribution centre in close proximity to the Port offers the opportunity for significant growth in these imports due to the cost-savings it could offer suppliers.

GAP Group approached the team after the refusal of their first application. The refusal notice had cited grounds of adverse transport impact, flood impact (the site is in flood zone 3), the lack of contribution of the development to the adjacent port activities, and the fact that the site was in the metropolitan Green Belt.

The site had a complex planning history. Although it had been earmarked for allocation for employment uses in an emerging Local Plan (and indeed had outline approval for commercial development), the Plan had not moved forward. As a result the site technically remained in Green Belt, despite the development of adjacent sites.

Carter Jonas provided an expert report on the Green Belt, reviewing the essential characteristics and five purposes the Green Belt, as defined in National policy, and assessing the site’s contribution to these purposes. The team then set out the Very Special Circumstances justifying the development of the site, with a review of the lack of alternative sites, and the contribution of the scheme towards the growth of the District and the adjacent port.

Carter Jonas also coordinated additional work from transport and flood consultants to overcome previous objections, and commissioned landscaping works to soften the appearance of the site and integrate it with adjacent developments to the east.

The Council accepted that despite the conflict with the Local Plan, the proposal met the test of Very Special Circumstances required for development in the Green Belt. The application was approved by delegated powers.

GAP are now able to move forward with their plans to develop a new depot, with the creation of 40 local jobs. GAP is a key national client, with Carter Jonas now their go-to planning adviser for any contentious planning matters. GAP values our ability to be able to cover all parts of the country through one point of contact, with ongoing projects across the country.