WESTAWAY Farm Rural Business Park is celebrating an impressive milestone.

More more than 100 people now work on the site at Bishop Sutton, in 14 different businesses.

Owner David Gillard and his family are delighted at how well things are going and they are looking forward to continuing to contribute to the local economy.

“With almost forty years of living in Bishop Sutton behind us, we have shown our commitment to the Chew Valley and we look forward to playing our part in ensuring a long-term sustainable and prosperous future for the whole area,” said David.

As the son of a welder, brought up in Bedminster, he never imagined he would now be overseeing a rural business park with a wide range of tenants.

David and his wife Anne first bought their farm in 1987 and were packing and selling cheese, rearing some sheep, the Dutch breed Zwartbles with their distinctive dark coats.

“We had created an office to work from, but not long afterwards we needed to move to larger premises and someone asked if they could take on the vacant space,” he said.

“That was the moment the penny dropped and we realised there was a demand for work space in rural areas, so we went about converting some of the farm buildings to offices, always using local suppliers so the spending stayed close to home,” explained David.

Things have grown organically since then and now host a wide range of tenants including an opticians, construction industries, ecology, insurance, commercial cleaners and even a play area for children.

They can accommodate everything from a established business to someone who wants to graduate from working in their back bedroom and offer space to the Chew Valley 10K as well as support the Cricket Club to run their Christmas tree sales operation.