Since Williams moved to their Grove base in October 1996 there have been relatively few updates to the site. The two major changes that spring to mind are: the building that originally housed the BMW.Williams Le Mans factory, which later became the conference and now experience centre, and the Williams Advanced Engineering building.
Hampered by a lack of money under family ownership, there hasn’t been any infrastructure investment for quite a while. In fact to keep the business afloat a parcel of land next to the factory was sold off for housing. Once Williams had been sold to Dorilton, priority was apparently given to short-term remedial works such as fixing leaking roofs.
Enter Dorilton
Since taking ownership of the team in the summer of 2020, Dorilton has invested large sums of money into the team and latterly has brought in James Vowles from Mercedes, who is charged with the task of modernising the team and bringing it back to the front of the grid.
Now comes exciting news, via a pre-planning application, that the team are looking to “refurbish and enhance its manufacturing and operations capability at Grove”.
Earlier this year, Williams submitted to the Vale of White House District Council (VWHDC) a 36-page Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening request, basically asking the council if they needed to submit a full EIA for planning. The council has said that an EIA is not required, and so Williams can now go forward and submit a full planning application.
What the EIA Screening Request has told us
Reading through the EIA Screening Request Report has told us a number of things about what Dorliton plan to do to the Grove site. Let’s take a look at some of those.
The first thing we have learned is that this building work has been given the name Project Carrum, I know not why! The high level description of the work is as follows:
The proposed development comprises the phased modernisation and expansion of the existing Williams Racing Grove Campus operations. The development includes increasing the size of the existing manufacturing and operations capability, which will comprise new and larger factory, technology and testing facilities, new office accommodation and new staff facilities. Some of the existing buildings on site will also be refurbished.
The key word in this paragraph is “phased” more on which in a moment.
We are told that there are currently “12 main buildings on the site, with a combined floorspace of approximately 36,500m2” and that this work will add and additional 12,000m2 floorspace “bringing the overall total floorspace to approximately 48,500m2“. That’s a one third (33%) increase in floorspace which is pretty significant.
But what about parking?
Williams had to say this about the numbers on site each day:
[O]n an average day, a total of approximately 940 staff work at the site, which itself is operational 24/7, and 25 visitors travel to the site.
The existing site provides a total of 801 car parking spaces, with occupancy of around 80%
If you have ever been to Williams, perhaps to visit the Experience Centre, then you will know that it can be a challenge to find a parking space. I haven’t been for a while and since then the number of staff has ballooned which must make the problem worse. I’m not sure I buy the 80% occupancy stat!
However, good news, Project Carrum will add “approximately 250 additional car parking spaces (which) will be provided in a combined surface and decked parking arrangement.”
Room to expand
As I said at the beginning of the article back in 2016 a parcel of land next to the factory was sold off for housing, however, what wasn’t clear at the time was that Williams retained some land:
Williams Racing also owns the land to the immediate west of the proposed development area, which comprises the agricultural land that surrounds Grove Wick Farm.
You can see this piece of land in the image below, bounded by the blue line. It sits behind what is now a housing development on the other side of the existing factory site, with a small road separating it.
It is made clear in the submitted document that this piece of forms NO PART of Project Carrum but does give some tantilising details of what it might use this area for:
In addition to the proposed development Williams Racing is contemplating some additional facilities to the immediate west of the proposed site, within its land ownership (i.e. a potential second phase of development). The additional facilities could include a STEM / innovation centre, a new experience centre (that could house a museum and conference space) and some additional surface car parking for visitors.
Doing this would make perfect sense as it would separate the public and private parts of the site which at the moment are mixed.
Business as usual
There are a couple of paragraphs in the document which should settle any nerves about what impact the building might have on operations:
The construction of the new buildings / facilities will be carefully phased to ensure that existing commercial activities can continue where possible during the construction period and that significant adverse effects do not arise.
That’s great news to anyone who wants Williams to succeed on track! Those worried about the longevity of Williams will also be pleased to read that the proposed development will “lead to an increase in the scale of the existing commercial land uses on site, which will assist in the long-term viability of operations.”
What we don’t know
There is no indication in the document on the timings of Project Carrum. The next step would be to seek full planning permission from VWHDC, something that once submitted would be time-consuming as locals and other interested parties would have to have the opportunity to input. And, of course, we have no idea how close Williams are to submitting anything. However, it is good to know that an improvement in infrastructure is being planned as this can only help the team on track.
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