Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

To clinch the investment from the unidentified overseas company and also secure the relocation of the College of West Anglia to NORA in a £95m move - operations already based in the area need to be reshuffled to make way.

The council is prepared to enact compulsory purchase orders if necessary to ensure neither of the massive investment opportunities is torpedoed but stresses that the cpo route is a last resort.John Norton, who heads the council's regeneration effort, believes this dramatic intervention will not prove necessary.

Negotiations between all parties concerned were progressing this week and he was confident that compromises would be made.

"CPO was purely a contingency that we needed to ensure these exciting opportunities were not lost to King's Lynn," he said.

"Everyone involved seems keen to effect a solution without going down this route."As far as the mystery foreign investor is concerned, Norton said there is no particular time pressure.

"They chose King's Lynn in a trawl of national venues because it ticked all their boxes. There is no gun to our heads time-wise."According to the borough council, the key to the "largest single investment in the borough for many years," is the redevelopment of the 28-acre Willows Business Park, adjacent to the 100-acre former sugar beet factory - the location favoured by the inward investment prospect.

"The Willows is the only undeveloped suitable site in the area, with an employment allocation, which is available," the council said. With cash, jobs and a major infrastructure enhancement in the balance, the owner of the land, Broadland Properties, is well aware of the council's determined stance and is said to be an enthusiastic contributor to the current negotiations.

It was already willing to relocate its household waste recycling centre from its present Horsley Fields site to the sugar beet factory, but given that this would clash with the foreign manufacturer's plans it now wants to resubmit a planning application to move the 2.5 acre recycling facility to Willows.

The project also requires the relocation of a skip hire company, currently leasing 12 acres at the sugar beet factory, to the business park.The minutes of a special cabinet meeting emphasised the council's resolve:

"It is understood the land has been owned by Broadland Properties since at least the 1980s with no sign of activity on the site. The council has forwarded a number of inquiries to the owner's agents over the years but none has resulted in development.

"Developer Morston has made a number of offers for the Willows land and has invited the owner to suggest an acquisition price but no response has been received.

"The borough council could, if necessary, use its compulsory purchase powers on the basis that the Willows land is the only reasonable location available. Securing this land is in accordance with section 226 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and is necessary in the interests of the proper planning of the area.

NORA is a partnership led by the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk, which also includes EEDA, English Partnerships, Norfolk County Council, the Environment Agency and Morston Assets which are owners and developers of parts of the area.

It also includes part of a £250m initiative to regenerate the King's Lynn area; the project will spearhead the creation of up to 900 homes, 600,000 sq ft of commercial space, a marina, associated community, residential and commercial developments and areas of landscaped open space across a 50 hectare site.

The borough council has also asked the Government to save an internationally recognised centre of excellence for construction training in Norfolk.The National Construction College at Bircham Newton, is expected to be one of the first casualties of a restructuring programme by its operator, the Construction Industry Training Board-Construction Skills.

Closure of the facility could cost 700 jobs and hit contracts and services provision. The facility requires modernisation at a cost £15m and the efforts of the CITBCS has left it £7-8m short of that total. Whitehall has been asked to intervene.