Wilmslow's largest employer is to hold an open exhibition to display plans and present proposals for the development of a new headquarters office building in Wilmslow.
Royal London recently submitted plans to Cheshire East Council as part of an outline planning application.
The application, submitted jointly by Property Alliance Group (PAG) and Royal London, seeks approval to provide a new office building with associated car parking; access improvements for vehicles; the creation of new pedestrian and cycle links to the site; together with enhancement of existing and provision of new landscaping on land to the rear of the existing campus at Alderley Road, which lies in the Cheshire Green Belt.
The exhibition will be held at Wilmslow Public Library on Thursday 19th May between 12:00pm and 6:30pm when members of the professional team acting for PAG and Royal London will be on hand to answer questions and explain the proposals in more detail.
In the revised Local Plan Strategy the Royal London site has been identified for mixed use development, providing for around 175 homes and 5 ha of employment land.
In January 2016 Royal London announced it is looking at alternative location options near Wilmslow as they will unable to build additional offices at the current site unless Cheshire East Council removes planning restrictions on the land.
In March 2015 the company said they plan to create an additional 450 new jobs at its campus on Alderley Road. The business currently employs around 900 full time staff in the town and wants to increase numbers to around 1,350.
Speaking in January, Head of Procurement and Facilities at Royal London, Neil Kilshaw said: "At our Wilmslow site we have recognised for some time that space is a real issue. With an ageing property we are restricted in both maintaining existing and creating new working environments, without undertaking a major refurbishment. We've already relocated our some of our people to Alderley House on the campus as we have run out of space in the main Royal London House office. Taking into consideration our planned growth over the next few years, it's clear we're going to need more space soon."
"One of the options open to Royal London would be to develop new purpose-built offices on the adjoining land that we own to the east of the current site. However delivery of this option will require Cheshire East Council to remove planning restrictions on the land as a matter of urgency.
"As uncertainty remains around the leading location option, Royal London is also looking at other development sites near to Wilmslow. We have appointed the property consultants Lambert Smith Hampton to assist us finding other potential sites."
