Hi-tech innovation centre will be EPIC for bay’s potential

The EPIC cCentre under construction and, inset, an artist’s impression of the new centre

AGROUND-breaking centre designed to reinforce Torbay’s place in the vanguard of high-tech telecommunications projects is taking shape in Paignton.

The EPIC Centre is one of the new buildings going up beside the ring road at White Rock.

On land where the popular Vergines nightclub used to stand, there is now the rapidly-growing EPIC.

The capital letters stand for the Electronics and Photonics Innovation Centre, an £8 million project which supports the electronics and photonics cluster in Torbay and South Devon.

It is a regionally important project, with around 1,000 people already employed and growth forecast in this sector. It opens next April.

It builds on Torbay’s traditional expertise in the sector. The STC, ITT, Nortel and Bookham factory nearby was at the forefront of fibre-optic technology for four decades.

These projects will create employment, bring inward investment and further enhance the competitiveness of the wider region and provide investment and expansion opportunities.

Torbay MP Kevin Foster has welcomed the arrival of the EPIC, saying: “I welcome the focus on developing opportunities for the next generation.

“When completed, the £17m new Hi-Tech Skills Centre at South Devon College, along with the £8m EPIC Centre, will raise the bar for our Bay in the crucial digital and photonics industries.

“Higher level skills mean higher paid jobs.”

Construction on began in April.

The centre is being developed and operated by TDA, on behalf of Torbay Council.

Mayor Gordon Oliver said: “EPIC will be a centre of excellence in supporting technological innovation and I am delighted that the council has been able to bring this centre forward.

“The facility will promote

the

site collaborative activity between businesses and research institutions, while accommodating and supporting start up and spin-off companies and foreign direct investment relevant to the microelectronics and photonics sector.

“I am grateful to the high-tech businesses locally for their insight and support for this project and warmly welcome the support of our funding partners.”

The £8m project comprises a purpose-built high-tech innovation centre, along with car parking, landscaping and accompanying estate road.

EPIC is partly funded by £3m from the Heart of the South West LEP’s Growth Deal funding.

Chairman of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Steve Hindley, said: “The high-tech sector is an important driver to growth throughout the whole of the Heart of the South West area. This new development will help generate more growth by providing purpose-built facilities for more than 70 innovation led companies, as well as supporting collaborations between industry and centres of learning.”