Property developer Jaynic has bought 91-acres at the former RAF Airfield at Shepherd’s Grove near Stanton in Suffolk from Property Recycling Group PLC and taken on an existing contract to sell 68 acres to Copart UK, the vehicle remarketing and recycling giant.
The sale to Copart, subject to planning, for B8 Use Class (storage and distribution), would create a new 68-acre “super centre” in East Anglia as part of its major expansion programme to meet continued and growing demand from its customers.
The new operation centre on the A143 will be the largest vehicle storage and processing centre site owned by Copart in the UK, which currently has 16 others around the country. It is the largest UK business in its sector, moving more than half a million vehicles a year, and remarketing vehicles on behalf of the insurance sector, fleet, lease and hire companies.
A masterplan for the site had been adopted by West Suffolk Council, including up to 400 residential units, but Jaynic are now pursuing a 100% commercial development, with no residential uses.
The development includes a new roundabout on the A143 together with a link road to the existing Shepherd’s Grove West industrial area allowing HGV vehicles from there to enter and exit directly onto the A143 rather than through the village of Stanton as is currently the case.
Additionally, the new roundabout junction on the A143 will slow traffic considerably coming in and out of Stanton and make the junction on to the A143 from Hepworth much safer. And without the residential scheme there will be significantly less traffic than would have otherwise been the case.
Jaynic’s development will include all of these highway improvements, framework landscaping, on-plot landscaping, additional land planted to meet Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, the Copart development site and a further 10 acres of commercial land split over 4 plots.
Jaynic will present its proposals in detail to Stanton and Hepworth Parish Councils before holding a public exhibition, prior to the application being submitted in early 2022.
The Copart Suffolk centre will provide between 100 and 120 new jobs for Copart’s directly employed workforce, including management and supervisory roles, engineers, around 30 office jobs, a similar number working in the vehicle yard, and 30 transporter drivers. Apprenticeships will also be available.
Savills agreed the deal with Copart and are agents on the remaining development land alongside Hazells.
