Entry Hill Depot is located towards the top end of Entry Hill, approximately 2km to the southwest of Bath city centre and 400m east of Cross Manufacturing’s long-established Midford Road facility.
The former Entry Hill golf course is located to the north of the depot. Entry Hill itself runs along the eastern boundary from which the site takes vehicular and pedestrian access. The rear gardens of residential properties on Entry Rise and Hansford Square border the southern and western boundaries respectively.
A historic quarry face remains in place in the southern and western area of the site. The topography is approximately level then slopes away north towards the golf course.
There is a yard of hard standing located centrally and towards the south side of the depot, with the remainder of the site comprising mixed secondary woodland on made ground.
Cross Manufacturing purchased the Entry Hill Depot from Bath & North East Somerset Council in November 2024.
The site was previously used as a quarry and is indicated as such in historic maps dating back to 1888. With the cessation of quarrying activities, the site was then brought into use as a Council yard in the early-mid 20th century, latterly being used as a Highways Depot up until the Council released the site for employment use. Cross Manufacturing purchased Entry Hill Depot in November 2024.
Cross Manufacturing is proposing the sensitive redevelopment and reuse of the site to provide light industrial workshop and storage facilities. The new building will be located in the area currently largely comprising hard standing, with the much of the existing woodland and green areas being retained and improved as habitat areas.
Cross Manufacturing has appointed a professional team led by Bath-based architects, David Brain Partnership, to prepare a full planning application for the proposed new facility.
The Cross Manufacturing Company is a Bath-based engineering company. Since the 1920s it has specialised in the design and manufacture of heat resisting wrought alloy sealing rings and associated products, combining technology with innovation to achieve world-class quality and precision. Cross Manufacturing has three facilities, two on Hopton Road in Devizes and their original site at Midford Road in Bath.
The company employs almost 600 staff of which 150 are based at its headquarters in Bath, with the remainder at its two factories in Devizes. 65% of Bath-based staff live within 10 miles of the Bath site and 30% within 5 miles. The employee retention rate is high with over 40% of staff based at Bath working for the company for more than 15 years.
Cross is proud to partner with the University of Bath, collaborating on research and development projects and advanced sealing technologies. Cross currently sponsors three PhD students in the department of Aerospace Engineering.
Cross support the next generation of engineers from the University of Bath offering a 12-month placement program for industry experience. With half a decade supporting placements, students have worked on development programs both during and after their placements.
During the last 30 years, Cross Manufacturing has invested heavily in its buildings and facilities to meet the growing demand for its products. However, the site at Midford Road is now at capacity.
The company is dedicated to its Bath roots and many of its staff are based locally. The prospective development site at Entry Hill represents an opportunity for the sensitive expansion of operations enabling a temporary leased storage facility at Brassmill Industrial Estate to be relocated in closer proximity to the Midford Road site, enhancing operational efficiency whilst retaining existing jobs within Bath, creating new employment opportunities, and boosting the city’s manufacturing economy.
The proposed re-use of the site for employment purposes is in accordance with Bath & North East Somerset Council development plan policy (Policy ED2B of the Local Plan Partial Update 2023). It also presents an opportunity to contribute towards the local economic development aims of the adopted B&NES Economic Strategy 2024-2034.
As part of the process of preparing a planning application for the reuse of the site, pre-application advice was sought from the Council. This confirmed that the principle of redevelopment is supported in planning policy.
In terms of national policy, the recently updated National Planning Policy Framework (December 2024) supports the redevelopment of redundant previously developed land for proposals that support economic growth.
Much of the site will be retained as woodland and habitat areas, enhanced with significant new planting. A new fence has recently been installed in liaison with our immediate neighbours and this includes tunnels to allow the continued movement of badgers and other wildlife through the site.
Many of the ash trees on site have sadly suffered varying degrees of Ash Dieback disease. The council previously felled several large trees along the boundary to Entry Rise and others within the site do require attention before they fall. We have a tree expert working as part of the project team to manage this. Any trees that do require removal will be replaced with appropriate native species.
The baseline habitats on the former depot site are predominantly mixed woodland, with some mixed scrub, and an area of developed land. These have been assessed to be in poor condition.
The redevelopment proposals will include habitats such as a newly developed surface with small urban trees, bordered by grassland that steadily transitions to improved mixed scrub and broadleaved woodland, with another patch of scrub on the southern site boundary.
There is an area of the invasive Japanese Knotweed on site, located near a few active badger sett entrances. These have been accounted for in the development plans and will be managed and protected accordingly.
In addition to the improved woodland and protected badger setts, a dark corridor will be maintained over the northern stretch of woodland to ensure bat flight paths can continue away from artificial light.
The proposed habitat management and enhancements would deliver at least 10% net gain in biodiversity.
Operations at Entry Hill will be similar to those at the Midford Road Site. These include the manufacture of aerospace seals, aircraft piston rings and custom seal rings for aircraft engines and many other industrial environments.
The new building will include light industrial workshop /manufacturing space, areas for deliveries & storage and plant areas together with ancillary staff facilities including reception, offices, canteen and toilets.
The building will incorporate a design that comprises separate elements in a staggered footprint. An asymmetrical roof form will reduce the apparent massing of the building as well as creating visual interest and maximising the potential for rooftop PV (solar) cell installation to enable the proposal to be in full compliance with sustainable construction development plan policies.
The workshop’s roof will be insulated steel composite panels with a trapezoidal profile. The south-facing roof faces will be fitted with non-reflective PV (solar) panels. Cast Bath stone walling is proposed at low level with Siberian larch timber vertical cladding above. These materials are used on an existing storage building at the northwest end of Cross Manufacturing’s Midford Road site. The larch will weather naturally to a silver colour and further reduce the visual impact of the building as it settles into its woodland setting.
The office area will be visually differentiated from the workshops in both form and materials. Vertical zinc standing seam cladding interspersed with floor to ceiling glazing is proposed at both ground and first floor levels. It is proposed that office walls will be topped with a zinc parapet and a flat extensive green roof beyond will add to the biodiversity enhancements and sustainable drainage proposed for the site.
The staggered footprint layout creates a generous western boundary separation of 22m, 26m and 30m. The residential properties of Hansford Square are situated a further 30m+ beyond the Western boundary.
The visual impact of the building on nearby residential properties will be minimised by careful siting and working with the site’s topography and the introduction of new screen planting. The combination of these factors will preserve the amenity of neighbouring residents.
Very close views into site are limited by topography and dense boundary vegetation. The clearest public views are from Entry Hill, in particular at the entrance gateway. Neighbouring properties bordering the depot may have views into site from rear gardens and upper storey windows.
Mid-range views typically include the site as an indivisible part of the wooded backdrop. Views are occasionally channelled along Entry Hill or Wellsway (Bear Flat) in which the depot remains screened by tree cover within and adjoining its northern edge.
In long range views from residential areas to the north, the site is indistinguishable and is readily screened by intervening foreground trees, even in winter.
In long range views from further to the north, the site forms a distant and indistinct part of the substantially wooded upper valley on the skyline horizon. Distant glimpses of roofscape are common amidst the tree canopies. Tree cover within and adjoining the northern edge of the site is a strong visual screen.
The development will adopt a fabric first approach to minimising energy use on site, providing highly insulated floors, walls & roofs in order to reduce the building energy use.
The use of natural ventilation of the offices will be considered to reduce the requirement for mechanical ventilation and cooling and the associated energy use and carbon emissions. Water consumption will be minimised with the use of low flow sanitary fittings. Energy efficient LED lighting will be used throughout.
The building will incorporate the use of air source heat pumps to provide heating, benefitting from less than a third of the energy consumption required by a gas fired boiler. As no combustion occurs, air quality is also not impacted. High temperature air source heat pumps are proposed for hot water generation, further reducing energy usage and carbon emissions.
The building will also use PV panels to provide a renewable source of energy for the development and reduce carbon emissions. This is currently estimated at 432kWp and the design will continue to be developed in conjunction with the project’s Sustainability Consultant.
Five active and ten passive electric vehicle charging spaces are proposed for the site to support a transition to low carbon travel. Twenty-four cycle spaces including E-Bike charging provisions are proposed to encourage sustainable travel to the site by staff.
The existing site access will be improved to facilitate vehicular access. The improved access will also include footway provision on both sides with these connecting to a new off-site footway running north on the west side of Entry Hill and new drop kerb crossing points to connect to the existing footway on the east side of Entry Hill. A new zebra crossing of Entry Hill also forms part of the proposals with this located between the Entry Rise and Hawthorn Grove side road junctions, subject to the approval of the council’s highways team.
Parking for 48 cars, 24 bicycles and 8 motorcycles will be provided on site.
Heavy Goods Vehicles will access the proposed site, but their numbers will be limited. At the nearby Midford Road site there are typically no more than one large articulated HGVs per week and a maximum of five smaller rigid HGVs per day. The numbers visiting the Entry Hill site will likely be lower than currently visiting the Midford Road site.
The site is well located to enable employees to utilise sustainable modes of transport. Many of Cross Manufacturing’s employees live locally and the site is easily accessible on foot, bicycle or by bus. There will be parking provided on site for those employees who do require it, as well as visitors and deliveries, and a travel plan will be implemented to minimise reliance on the car.
The existing Midford Road site has a Staff Travel Plan that will be expanded to also cover the Entry Hill site. Surveys undertaken for the existing Travel Plan identify that approximately 22% of Cross Manufacturing staff currently travel to work by sustainable modes with a key target of the Travel Plan being to increase this proportion to 29% over the next few years. It is likely that the target for sustainable travel will increase further as part of ongoing monitoring and updates of the Staff Travel Plan.
Traffic surveys have been undertaken at the junctions at either end of Entry Hill so that the existing turning movements and levels of congestion can be accurately identified. The predicted number of additional traffic movements likely to be generated by the proposed development have been derived from the staff travel surveys undertaken at the existing Midford Road site on the assumption that travel habits and shift patterns will be broadly the same at both sites. The development flows have then been added to the surveyed flows and the operation of the Entry Hill junctions assessed using the appropriate software. In summary, the proposed development will have no material effect on the operation of either junction or the levels of congestion currently experienced.
The proposed development will increase the traffic flows on Entry Hill but not significantly so. The current Liveable Neighbourhood proposals that are being prepared by B&NES would not therefore be adversely affected. It should also be noted that it is suggested that the development would bring with it a new zebra crossing of Entry Hill located between Entry Rise and Hawthorn Grove, subject to the approval of the council’s highways team. This crossing is not included within the Council’s current Liveable Neighbourhood proposals but was identified as a desirable item within previous Liveable Neighbourhood consultation workshops.
Sustainable Drainage System (SUDS) features will be incorporated into the site to ensure that surface water run-off is appropriately managed. This will also ensure that the water quality of run-off is improved. The drainage system will be designed to be protected from any possible contamination from the historic landfill uses on site with a solid casing and bentonite seal at the top of the underlying rock.
We do not anticipate the site to be noisy. As at the Midford Road site, any manufacturing operations will be indoors, and we do not anticipate high noise levels. All noise levels will fall within permitted values as is the case at our existing operations close to residential properties.
Any planning consent will include conditions, one of which will be a Construction Management Plan. This will set out agreed working hours on site during construction to ensure disruption for neighbours is kept to a minimum. It will also set out routes and access arrangements for construction/delivery vehicles together with details on how issues such as ‘mud on the highway’ will be minimised and resolved.
A full planning application is being prepared to be submitted to the Council. It is anticipated that this will be submitted in the late summer/early autumn of 2025. Once the application has been validated and registered, the Council will carry out consultation on the submitted plans with a range of statutory and non-statutory consultees, and the public.
Construction will start subject to planning permission being granted and all pre-commencement planning conditions being discharged. The duration of the planning process is dependent upon timely consideration and proactive engagement with the Council officials and statutory consultees. Based on current information it is anticipated that construction could commence during 2026.
The existing facility at Midford Road is at full capacity. Therefore it is anticipated that the new facility would be brought into use soon after completion.