FAQs

Jobs

How many new jobs will be created?
The new dairy will create almost 700 jobs in the following fields: production, process, transport, lab, engineering, despatch administration.
In addition, up to 1,000 construction jobs will also be created.

Can you guarantee these positions will be filled by local people?
We will advertise the jobs in the local area. Similarly, we will create an Aylesbury section on our recruitment website. We expect this new development will be typical of our other dairies, where almost all of the workforce lives within 20 miles of the dairy.     

How will this job creation benefit Aylesbury? 
By creating almost 700 new jobs this willd boost the local economy as it will generate a £20 million annual wages bill, some of which undoubtedly will be spent locally, benefiting shops, leisure outlets and other businesses in Aylesbury.

I am interested in applying for a job at the dairy, what do I have to do?
All you have to do is follow the link below to our recruitment website and register your interest www.arlafoodsjobs.co.uk

Transport

How many lorries will be accessing the site each hour?
When the dairy reaches capacity, which will take some time, an average of 20 lorries per hour will come to the dairy. A number of mitigation measures will be instigated to ensure there is capacity on the routes they will be using, including:

• A routing strategy, which only uses the strategic highway network – we will not use any village roads
• All our vehicles will be fitted with trackers and we will monitor the routes used
• We will avoid peak hours where possible
• We will deliver improvements to key roads to alleviate current congestion issues
• We will route as many vehicles as possible down the A41 towards London as this has a two-way capacity of 70,000 and currently only 23,000 are using it

Aylesbury does not have a good enough road network to cope with this additional traffic so why are you proposing to build your dairy here?
The Transport Assessment submitted with the planning application incorporated very detailed and complex information regarding current traffic flows, future traffic flows based on every development which has received planning permission, and the implications of bringing the dairy to this site.
We are confident that with the mitigation measures we have incorporated, including a new shuttle bus service for employees and local road improvements, there is enough capacity on local roads for the proposed dairy traffic.

What road improvements are proposed?
We are investing in the highway to improve the flow of traffic into and out of Aylesbury including signalising and improving the A41 roundabouts at Oakfield Road/King Edward Avenue Junction and Bedgrove/Broughton Lane.
The Oakfield Road / King Edward Avenue / A41 and the Broughton Lane / Bedgrove /A41 junctions are currently operating above capacity, causing queuing at these existing junctions. In the absence of the proposed Arla development, this situation will only get worse because there are a number of other traffic generating developments in Aylesbury which have already received planning approval but which are not yet built – including the three major development areas (MDA) of Berryfields, Aston Clinton and Weedon Hill.  None of the promoters of these other sites are proposing any effective improvements to these key junctions. 
The improvements at these junctions will not only mitigate against the impact of the proposed Arla development traffic, but will also improve upon the existing operation of the junctions.

If there are 700 people working at the site does that mean 700 cars trying to get to the site every day?
Not every colleague will come to the site every day. We will also operate shift patterns which will aim to avoid peak hours. In our plans we have incorporated green transport measures to minimise the use of the car, including but not limited to:

• The provision of a new shuttle bus service
• Car sharing schemes
• Electric car bays
• Shift patterns which reduce the impact on the local road network at peak times
• New improved pedestrian and cycle accesses
• Provision of cycle lockers and showers on site
• Motorcycle priority parking bays

Milk supply

There are rumours that you intend to import milk from the Continent to the dairy, is this true?
No. Only milk supplied by British farmers will be processed at the dairy. Currently we purchase 100 per cent of our milk processing requirement for our UK dairies from British farmers and we will continue to purchase 100 per cent British milk for Aylesbury dairy.

Potential suppliers

My company is interested in business opportunities at the dairy how do we contact you?
Please email aylesburydairy@arlafoods.com outlining the services your business offers your contact details.

Why this site?
 

Why are you building on a greenfield site?
In the adopted Local Plan the land is classified as unallocated land. This means that it has no use allocated to it nor is it designated or protected for any specific use. We looked at several other sites but due to this land not having allocated usage, its lack of ecological, archaeological value, its agricultural quality plus the fact that there are existing industrial uses and consent for further industrial development in the proximity of the site, we believe this site was our best option.

Why not build the dairy on a site already allocated for employment use?
Although we looked at a number of brownfield sites as part of the search process, none were able to offer the site we needed for the scheme. There was no other single site of sufficient size that met our location criteria which could accommodate the dairy. We assessed many sites and discounted them due to lack of available land and issues such as flooding, access and services, as well as deliverability.

As part of your changes to the masterplan you ‘increased the landscape buffer to 32 acres of new woodland and hedgerows’. Where are these additional 32 acres coming from?
This is land within the original footprint, we have not extended the footprint of the site.

What changes have been made to the master plan since December 2010?

• Reducing the scale by removing 50,000 sq ft of commercial space
• Reducing the height of the industrial units and raw milk silos
• Changing the colour of the proposed buildings and silos to autumnal colours (greens and browns) in order to better blend with the landscape
• Delivering 32 acres of new woodland and planting (20 – 80 metres wide) to provide a screening buffer around the entire site on top of a landscaped bund. Evergreen species have also been included amongst the native species and semi mature/heavy trees would be planted at an early stage
• Establishing a noise mitigation strategy using the latest technologies to ensure that there is no discernable noise impact
• Removing roof lights, using lower power lights and no sodium lights, baffles and glare shields to direct light, using low column heights and turning off lights when not required to reduce any light impact to a minimum
• Reducing the size of the services building, removing biomass boiler and moving this building farther away from Buckland Road, allowing the planting buffer to be increased and include a ‘green wall’
• Changing transport strategy to seek to avoid A413, town centre roads and Air Quality Management Areas
• Ensuring more vehicles use the A41 to London which has a two-way capacity for 70,000 vehicles and currently has a flow of around 23,000
• Ensuring all Arla vehicles have trackers so routes are managed

Why have you got outline planning permission for two industrial plots as well as the dairy?
Our long-term vision is for this area to become a small Arla business park.  Arla will oversee this development to ensure that the buildings and occupiers adhere to Arla's high quality standards and requirement to be a good neighbour. We will also adopt a phased approach to the development of remaining land. This will also mean we have a comprehensive overview of the whole development rather than adding to the uncertainty about the future of land not otherwise incorporated in the development.
We anticipate that some of the units may be utilised by our suppliers, which will positively benefit the environment as it will reduce the number of road miles our supplies for the dairy have to travel.
The applications are outline which means that should an occupier be found, they will be subject to a detailed planning application and further consultation with local stakeholders and the community will have to take place to ensure that any use is suitable for the area.

Public consultation

How did you gather local residents' feedback on your masterplan?
We began consulting with the local community, parish and town councils and other interested groups and stakeholders in December 2010. As well as meetings with these stakeholders, our consultation programme included:

• Three events in local venues
• The launch of a dedicated website
• Encouraging residents to complete comment forms
• Provided a feedback telephone number for queries

Why Aylesbury?    

Aylesbury is not near the motorway network and its local roads are very congested so why has Arla proposed the town for such a large development?
Aylesbury offers the best logistical and sustainable solutions, situated between the farmers who will supply the milk and the growing population in the South East, which will be the dairy’s main customer base.

As well as offering the opportunity to seek to attract suppliers to the dairy to inward invest, which could further reduce overall road miles, the site at Aylesbury provides direct access to the A41 and we are confident that in conjunction with the mitigation measures proposed in the Transport Assessment, there is capacity on the road network for the proposed dairy.

If you have a question that is not answered above, please contact us via our contact page.