THE long-awaited enterprise zone at Model Farm off the A40 in Ross-on-Wye is finally about to happen.

Roger Allonby, Herefordshire Council’s service director for economy and growth said the first phase of the project, for which £8 million has been earmarked, is already ‘toward the end of’ the detailed design stage.

Acknowledging there has been ‘pent-up frustration in Ross’ over lack of progress at the council-owned site for many years, he said: “We will be going out to find a contractor towards the end of this year and hope to be on-site starting to do the physical work in March-April.”

He explained that there will then be around a 12-month period of works to create the development-ready plots and added: “That’s not building buildings, that’s putting in the access roads and developing the plots.

“Selling the plots to companies will then start in about 18 months’ time, by which time a body would need to be in place to market them.”

The development of the Model Farm forms part of the Ross Town investment plan, which has been a driver of the need for this investment.

When the first phase of work is complete the site will provide the opportunity for the private development of a mix of office and industrial space across four acres initially. This will then act as a catalyst for future phases of development across the remainder of the site.

The local authority is being advised by Mark Pearce, managing director of Skylon Park, the successful enterprise zone that has been developed over the last 12 years in Rotherwas in Hereford.

Mr Price told councillors that there had been ‘a bit of cynicism’ about the Ross scheme from businesses, but that once physical work begins on the site, ‘that will transform interest levels’.

“By next autumn you want clarity in the businesses you want to see there, and the businesses you don’t, and how you approach them,” Mr Price added.

Cll Diana Toynbee said it was disappointing that the council has decided to sell this land, so forgoing future rental revenue from it. She added the zone should favour ‘home-grown’ companies.

Mr Pearce pointed out that 80 per cent of investment in Skylon has been businesses growing locally into the zone, “So that has worked,” he said.

For the council to build and let out its own units, as has partly been the case at Skylon, the council would have to make a much bigger financial outlay, he stated.

Mr Allonby suggested that a blended approach to land tenure was most likely at Model Farm.