BIG programme’s latest transport scheme announced

Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership has announced that work on the A338 Wessex Fields access road started at the end of September 2019 marking the next phase of transport improvements forming part of the Bournemouth International Growth (BIG) Programme. The work, which is being delivered by BCP Council, includes the development of new on/off slip roads from the A338 southbound. 

The road will be built to the site boundary to unlock the Wessex Fields site for future development. A public engagement event will be held on 19th November to seek views on the future use of the site which is currently allocated for employment uses.

BCP Council and RBCH are also working together to explore future options which could include a controlled access road built that connects the A338 to the hospital site, as well as better cycling and public transport access.

This scheme forms part of the £45.2 million secured by Dorset LEP through the government’s Local Growth Fund for the BIG Programme, an ambitious major economic growth plan focused on boosting employment and development around Bournemouth Airport. 

For further information go to a338.info

Notes to editors

Launched in January 2016, the BIG Programme is a major economic growth plan focused on employment and development around Bournemouth Airport and Wessex Fields.  Over seven years a series of transport and infrastructure investments will:

• Transform accessibility to and around Bournemouth Airport through extensive transport improvements;
• Release up to 60 hectares of prime, flexible employment land for high-quality new business premises at Aviation Business Park;
• Provide the single largest employment opportunity in the southeast Dorset conurbation with the potential to create up to 10,000 new highly skilled jobs over the next decade;
• Generate up to £500 million of GVA into the area;
• Deliver around 350 new homes of which up to 50 per cent are affordable;
• Deliver increased broadband capacity to Bournemouth Airport and Aviation Business Park;
• Develop a new approach to improve skills and employee development, better tailoring it to the needs of key business sectors (aerospace, aviation, advanced manufacturing, digital media, marine, defence and financial services). 

Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership is overseeing the BIG Programme in collaboration with BCP Council and Dorset Council.

* £45,200,000 has been allocated to fund the BIG Programme from the £98.5 million funding secured by Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership through the Government’s ‘Growth Deals’.  

“Local Growth Fund”

Local Enterprise Partnerships are playing a vital role in driving forward economic growth across the country, helping to build a country that works for everyone.

That’s why by 2021 Government will have invested over £12bn through the Local Growth Fund, allowing LEPs to use their local knowledge to get all areas of the country firing on all cylinders.

Some additional key facts:

• There are 38 LEPs covering the whole of England.
• The government has awarded £9.1bn in three rounds of Growth Deals to local areas to drive economic growth.

LEPs are investing in a wide range of projects including transport, skills, business support, broadband, innovation and flood defences.