Science Vale UK

CLIENT GROUP

• Homes & Communities Agency
• Vale of White Horse
• South Oxfordshire District Council
• Oxfordshire County Council

CLIENT INDUSTRY

• Local Authority

SERVICES PROVIDED

• Planning
• Development
• Urban Design
• Healthcare
• Research (Including Place-Making and Cam-Sci)

LOCATIONS

• Wantage / Grove
• Culham Science Centre
• Harwell Oxford and Milton Park
• Town of Didcot, South Oxfordshire

SIZE

• 16,000 new homes
• 15,000 new jobs

DIVISIONS INVOLVED

• Development Services
• Healthcare
• Research
• Savills Science

Science Vale UK (SVUK) is the UK’s leading centre for science, technology and innovation. The area includes Wantage/Grove, Culham Science Centre, Harwell Oxford and Milton Park, and the town of Didcot.

CHALLENGE
The aim was to create a highly connected linear business hub in which people want to live and work (The economy of place).

SOLUTION
Savills organised and managed a Technical Design Charrette and produced the Strategic Framework to 2040. The findings of the Technical Design Charrette identified the likely areas for development to accommodate 16,000 new homes and to create 15,000 new jobs in the period to 2040, and the likely infrastructure requirements to achieve a sustainable pattern of development.

Savills-led and co-ordinated a multi-disciplinary team to deliver:

• A Strategic Framework and a Delivery Plan for SVUK to 2040;
• Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for the area around Didcot Station Gateway setting key parameters and a principal land use plan; and
• An Outline Planning Application for mixed use development at the Didcot Gateway site.

RESULTS
The Framework led to the identification of a number of key infrastructure interventions in Science Vale and their subsequent funding.