Power supply issues mean Crawley depot cannot accommodate new base for high-tech company

The news was shared during a meeting of the overview & scrutiny commission on Monday (June 26).

And while mention was made of ‘green technology’, the council has not said exactly what the project would have involved, citing ‘confidentiality agreements’.

The depot, in Metcalf Way, is currently used as a vehicle workshop and by neighbourhood services and the waste and recycling service.

A spokesman said: “We had previously sought to redevelop the Metcalf Way Depot site for use by a high-tech company seeking to relocate to Crawley and bring with it 300 to 500 jobs.

“These discussions were subject to confidentiality agreements that mean we are unable to disclose anything further about that company.

“Significant work had been undertaken when the council was informed that there was insufficient power infrastructure in the area to be able to support the intended use, meaning that the redevelopment could not progress.

“This is the first time that this issue has been raised by the council or that we became aware that there were power – National Grid -constraints on the town.”

“The significant extra capital costs required to provide the power infrastructure made the redevelopment unviable, and so the council has instead sought to intensify its own use of the site.”

Leader Michael Jones told colleagues that he had been told it would take £20m to bring the infrastructure up to the required level.

Describing the situation as ‘deeply disappointing’, Mr Jones added: :”It is shocking that the state of our utilities in this country are [such] that something that wasn’t an enormous project couldn’t go ahead because we didn’t have the power.

“It seems to be a running theme. We’ve had water neutrality because we don’t have sufficient water infrastructure.

“It almost begs the question what next of our utilities are not going to be able to deliver.”

Cabinet agreed that the depot would be reconfigured for use by the Neighbourhood Services and Crawley Homes teams.

This would free up more than 20 garages which are currently used for storage, as well as 51 Spencer Road, which is used by Crawley Homes’ cleaning and clearance team.