Amazon warehouse could affect A1, says councillor

Plans for an Amazon fulfilment centre that could create about 2,000 jobs would have a huge impact on a town's road network, a councillor said.

Amazon submitted a planning application to Central Bedfordshire Council for the robotics-enabled facility at Symmetry Park on Stratton Business Park, Biggleswade, earlier this year.

The facility would be positioned next to the A1 and have an internal footprint of about 1.4 million sq ft (130,064 sq m).

Grant Fage, a Conservative councillor for Biggleswade East, which includes the business park, said: "This is a very complicated application and will have huge impacts on Biggleswade, positively in terms of job creation but negatively for our road network."

Central Bedfordshire Council has set 18 November as a target date for a decision on the project.

Fage said on social media that Amazon's proposal for the Biggleswade Amazon Robotics Sortable (ARS) included making changes to the A1 south roundabout, such as installing traffic lights on approaches from the north and south.

"If [National Highways] confirm that signalisation is required, I hope it highlights the desperate state of the A1 in Biggleswade, given that we would have the only traffic lights on the entire A1 stretch between South Mimms and Scotland."

Fage said this would feel like a step backwards as it would lead to queuing traffic as the movement of vehicles would not be free flowing.

He added "this didn't work for the Black Cat Roundabout", which is currently undergoing a £1bn transformation.

The BBC has contacted National Highways for comment.

Amazon said it chose Biggleswade because it offered access to a "highly skilled labour market, which is essential for operating and maintaining the advanced robotics and automation systems within an ARS facility".

The warehouse would be accompanied by three additional units with an estimated construction spend of £300m, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Tritax Big Box Developments, which owns Symmetry Park, said the backing of Amazon was a "strong endorsement of this location and reflects the scale of investment being made here".

In June, Amazon announced the official opening of its Northampton Robotics Sortable fulfilment centre, which can store tens of millions of products.

Mike Jackson, a spokesperson for Amazon, said: "Should the project progress, we would expect it to create a significant number of new roles in the area, with competitive pay and benefits."

Amazon is no stranger to Bedfordshire, where it already operates facilities in Dunstable and Houghton Regis.

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