A BUSINESS centre promising jobs and training in Okehampton has reached a major milestone as the first units are offered for sale or rent.The A30 Business Centre – A30BC for short – is the brainchild of charity the Okehampton Skills and Sports Trust.

The first building has now been completed, while a further building – to include facilities for NVQ training for young people – is in the pipeline.

Charity trustee Christine Marsh said: ‘It is a very exciting project because it is offering start up units as well as opportunities for young businesses and the facilities are really beautiful. It is a unit, yes, but it is not any old unit. It is light, it is airy, it has electric vehicle charging points. It is a really lovely building.

‘It is an opportunity for businesses to bring new skills and opportunities to Okehampton from anywhere. It is not just a local business thing. Its location is just off the A30, so it is perfect for businesses and for our economy.'The centre is also a stone’s throw from where it is hoped that the new Okehampton Parkway rail station will be built, to serve the eastern side of the town. The town’s rail service should start by the end of the year.

Mrs Marsh added: ‘Let’s be honest, there is lots of bad news going around at the moment and very little positive news and this is an incredibly positive opportunity.’

As well as 16 light industrial units for sale on the ground floor of the building, there are 36 separate offices for rent of varying sizes on the first floor. A maximum of four units per business has been set in the first instance to give more businesses the opportunity to secure premises.

A central area of the first floor, under a large glass atrium, will provide a breakout and networking space with admin support, refreshment facilities and bookable areas for small meetings and hot-desking, enabling and encouraging start-ups, young and established businesses to come together and bounce ideas off each other.

There is parking as well as secure access, ground source heating, solar panels, high levels of insulation, electric and bike charging points, lift and stair access and communal WiFi broadband.

Units are currently out for rent and sale through a local estate agent. In the pipeline is the construction of the next part of the A30 Business Centre, a second building which will house educational and training facilities.

This is to be run with Okehampton College’s business studies department.

Local hotelier Simon Essex, a major backer of the charitable scheme, said: ‘We have bought more land from Devon County Council and on that land we will be putting in some NVQ units. We are moving on with stage two and the second building is nearly as big as the first building.’