Basingstoke is the place to be, according to the leader of the council as three new firms sign a deal to move to the town’s business park.

The Gazette can reveal Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council is currently in talks with a number of London-based and international companies in a bid to woo them to the town.

The council-owned Basing View, a 65-acre business park, is home to American pharmaceutical company Eli Lily as well as the AA and housing association Sovereign.

Now the authority hopes more firms will relocate there to bring more jobs to the area.

Council leader Ken Rhatigan told The Gazette he was limited as to what he could say, saying: “What I can say is we are engaging with businesses that could bring hundreds of jobs to Basingstoke.”

You can read the full story in this week's Gazette, out June 10.

Also in this week's paper:

  • Three people were arrested after armed police stormed a house in Oakridge last week. Residents on the quiet cul-de-sac of Westray Close, near to the play park, witnessed armed offices swoop in on an address just after 2pm on Wednesday (June 2), closing the road off.
  • A sculpture of three infantrymen made in Basingstoke has been unveiled as part of a new D-Day memorial in Normandy. The bronze statue, put together and bronzed by Lychpit company Sculpture Castings, based in Eagle Court, is the centre-piece of the new permanent British memorial which was unveiled on Sunday to mark the 77th anniversary of the landings.
  • An “obsessive and possessive” man who beat his partner, punching her at least 100 times and keeping her prisoner, during a horrifying ordeal has been jailed for three years.
  • A third of the crashes on the notorious Black Dam Roundabout within the last 22 years have happened since the layout changed in 2016, The Gazette can reveal.
  • A taxi driver from Basingstoke has been left furious after vandals targeted a memorial to fallen colleagues outside the town’s railway station.
  • CCTV cameras and improved street lighting will be installed in parts of Basingstoke to make streets safer, the police and crime commissioner has said.
  • Plus: All the latest from Basingstoke Magistrates' Court.
  • Two pages of your letters to the editor.
  • We look back on the forgotten railways of the borough in our Flashback Thursday feature.
  • The final of our Pet Idol 2021, where you can vote for your favourite.
  • The latest business news.
  • Three pages of entertainment news.
  • Four pages of local sports news.
  • And much more!

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