Fosse Park extension approved

A MULTI-million pound expansion that will see hundreds of jobs created on the edge of Hinckley has been given the green light.

Work on the £135m expansion of Fosse Park is due to start next year after the shopping centre’s owners agreed to buy the former Everards bewery site next door.

The deal means plans for a 90,000 sq ft three-storey Next store, as well as a new Debenhams, TK Maxx and Clarks, can now go ahead.

The shopping park extension has planning permission for around 288,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space.

Fosse Park owners the Crown Estate said work was expected to get under- way early next year, with two-thirds of the units already pre-let.

They had previously estimated that the new development would create about 2,140 jobs.

Hannah Milne, director of regional retail at The Crown Estate, said: “Fosse is already one of the best retail centres in the country, and the addition of Castle Acres promises to make it that much better.

“The extension will be a fantastic boost for the local economy and we look forward to working with all our local partners as this new retail hub begins to take shape.”

The planning process for the redevelopment was led by Everards and supported by Next, which has its national headquarters just two miles up the road.

Fosse Park is already one of the UK’s most successful shopping parks, with 436,000 sq ft of retail space and 10 million visitors a year.

Major chains include M&S, Boots, WH Smith and a big new Primark.

In the last year, £12.7 million has been spent upgrading existing stores and frontages and on landscaping, public spaces and parking.

New stores include Office, Pandora, Primark, Superdrug and JD Sports.

The Everards brewery had been based on the 12.5-acre Castle Acres site for three decades.

As part of a move to grow its pub estate and downsize its third party brewing operations, it has already shut the Castle Acres site and relocated its office team to a new distribution site in Glenfield’s Optimus Point.

Its beer is temporarily being brewed outside the county, but revenue for the Fosse Park sale means it can go ahead with building Everards Meadows – its new HQ across Soar Valley Way from Fosse Park, next to Leicestershire Police headquarters.

That will eventually be home to a new brewery and head offices with longterm plans including pubs and bars and a food and drinks manufacturing park

Work will get underway on the site in early 2018.

Everards brewery chairman Richard Everard said: “We are delighted to have reached an agreement to sell Castle Acres to The Crown Estate, through the Fosse Partnership.

“Having already established our new logistics centre at Glenfield, Leicestershire, we now look forward to developing Everards Meadows.

“The build programme, commencing in early 2018, will include an Everards office and brewery, destination food and drink units and a cycling centre. We look forward to all of these developments further strengthening our family business for this and successive generations.”