The Wellcome Trust is threatening to take abroad its innovative £100m biotechnology park, originally planned for Hinxton, near Cambridge, after its planning application was rejected by the government two weeks ago. The verdict of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), which came after two public inquiries, endangers the 1,000 jobs that the development would have created and comes in the same month in which the Department of Trade and Industry set out a plan to encourage biotech 'clusters'.
The Wellcome Trust had wanted to create 40,000 square metres of accommodation for biotech companies at its Genome Campus in Hinxton. In light of hostility to the plan from the South Cambridgeshire District Council, the Trust had attempted to convince the DETR that physical proximity to genome research centres would provide start-up biotech companies with access to management experience, equity and the possibility of testing new ideas.
The governors of the Wellcome Trust will discuss the option of moving the biotechnology park abroad at a meeting on 8 September.
Sources and References
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Wellcome Trust hits local hostility in the battle over Hinxton Hall
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Wellcome Trust loses battle to expand its genome campus
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Biotech companies burn as political planners fiddle
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