Family Business Gets The Go Ahead For Swatland Farm Project

Gallagher Property has achieved outline planning permission for a new industrial-led business park at Swatland Farm, near Paddock Wood in Kent – the largest project of its kind the company has ever undertaken.

The plans for the 20-acre site is an expansion of Paddock Wood’s existing employment zone onto land north and south of Lucks Lane which will comprise of seven industrial units totalling more than 200,000 square feet of employment space. The units will be sub-divisible, so can be tailored to the needs of prospective occupants. Enabling the site will involve a major package of works including earthworks, building a new access road, utilities, services and installing drainage.

Once it’s complete, the park could support up to 2,200 jobs in the town, which is set for significant residential expansion with up to 4,000 new homes currently being proposed. It’s a highly sustainable location, being just a short walk from Paddock Wood town centre and mainline rail services to Charing Cross, Ashford International, Strood and Tonbridge; it will also link up with other neighbourhood and community infrastructure including new schools, sports facilities, a wetland park and a town-wide system of paths and cycle routes being developed under the Council’s Local Plan.

As Joe Heathfield, Property Development Manager, Gallagher Property explains, “This is the biggest employment site project we’ve ever managed to secure planning for; it’s a great result for us. Once we’ve discharged the planning conditions, we can get work under way: given its size, the whole job will probably take us around a year to complete."

"We’ll be marketing the site during the enabling works to determine the exact layout and composition of the seven units, depending on what the occupiers require.“