Both Aylesbury Vale District Council and South Northamptonshire Council have effectively approved Silverstone Circuit’s outline planning application, which supports the venue’s 20-year Masterplan – the next big step towards securing the long-term future of the international venue.
The circuit is owned by the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC), although there are advanced negotiations going on for the track to be leased to a third party.
The development of Silverstone will create around 8,400 permanent jobs with firms and activities attracted to the site, plus an average of around 550 construction jobs per annum throughout the development phase. At least 4,800 of these jobs are likely to be entirely new to the area.
Approval of the Masterplan conforms with the Silverstone Development Brief, issued in February 2009, and comprises:
business park, technology park, education campus, three hotels and ancillary retail and spectator facilities, including a Welcome Centre and a Museum of Motorsport, which can double as an exhibition centre. There will be improved leisure and event spaces, including a kart track and outdoor stage plus all the necessary landscaping work, grandstands, hardstanding and support paddock, plus a bridge and tunnel to improve pedestrian flows and a new access point for vehicles.
“This development will be good news both for Northamptonshire and for Britain,” said local MP Andrea Leadsom. “The fulfilment of the Masterplan will promote Silverstone as a world-leader in the motor sport industry, and will also deliver economic growth and jobs to the local area in the high-performance engineering sector, for which we have an international reputation. I look forward to supporting Silverstone as their plans develop in the coming years.”
The plans for Silverstone I’ve seen look great and really will cement the place as an international centre of excellence. It’ll be damn hard if they get it right to see Silverstone as anything other than the epi-centre of motorsports worldwide for a long time to come.
The facilities for fans look like they are great too. Even over the past two years the stands and gen admin at the two GPs on the arena layout have brought some great views (and got rid of the old Farm grandstand, which is one of the worst ever!).
Glad to hear that but where is the money coming from to fund it?
Hey Joe
of topic sorry. I am going to my first british gp. which of the platinum grandstands should I book.
Thanks
No idea. I don’t buy grandstand seats.
We always used to go in the middle stand at Stowe. you can see Hangar straight, Stowe itself and the entry into Vale and the Club exit. OR from the northmost stand you can see the bottom end of Hangar, plus all around Vale and Club. Mind, I qualify this by saying that it’s many years since I could afford to go. (Also my memory is suspect)
It was interesting to hear Sir Jackie Stewart echoing my thoughts on the recent developments at Silverstone . Apart from the fact that the new Pit and Paddock complex looks to be slightly ill conceived , there is not so much attention given to the fans that flock here in their droves year after year .
The temporary grandstands are just terrible .
There are so cramped and not high enough for good viewing .
What Silverstone needs ( and should have ) is a huge Stadium grandstand opposite the Pits . The Barcelona Pit Grandstand is fantastic in this respect , the Chinese one is just huge !
Come on Silverstone , you have to serve your fans much better than this !
Carlos, I was in Village B last year – you can see them through the new slow section, then if you’re high enough up you can look across and see them going the other way through Becketts half a lap later, so once cars space out after a few laps then there’s always something to see, probably more than 30% of the laptime is observable.
Can’t see the start line nor the pits, but there’s a big screen to show you that action.
You’ll have a great time. Even the traffic jam on the way out is OK if you tune the car to Silverstone FM.
Enjoy!