IN PICTURES: Science park thrives as it marks 20 years

When it was originally built, there were hopes that the park would lead to the creation of around 2,000 jobs and spark the creation of a new generation of companies.

As the park celebrates its two decades, the 80 businesses based on the site employ around 500 people.

But Nigel Babb, commercial director at the University of Wolverhampton Science Park as it is now known – has now doubts those job creation jobs have been met.

"Many of the companies that have started up here have moved out as they have grown. There are now thousands of people in work out in the Black Country at firms that started out at the science park," he said.

The original idea of the park, as home for hi-tech businesses and an incubator to help start-up companies get off the ground, was not universally welcomed, particularly in Birmingham where some argued that the existing facilities in Wolverhampton's bigger neighbour made the park unnecessary. More likely they didn't fancy the competition.

New and small firms were attracted by combination of quality accommodation and flexibility – rents and even walls could shift to adapt to the size of each tenant as it grew. Another attraction has been that firms are not tied into long leases.

And it has continued to prove popular, even during tough times.

That has enabled it to keep on growing since the ground was first broken back in 1994. Contractor Higgs & Hill Midlands was in charge of work on the 30,000 sq ft £13 million first phase of work on the 32-acre site, which received major financial backing from the European Regional Development Fund and City Challenge.

But the first step had been the clean up a site polluted by more than a century of heavy industrial use. Once occupied by Wolverhampton Gas Works, Hawker Siddeley and the Electric Construction Company, better known as ECC, it had been empty and unusable for more than decade, heavily polluted with arsenic, cadmium and acids.

By the early 1990s soon became clear that at least two year's work would be needed just to clear the site of decades of pollution, excavating down to a depth of 10ft and using 40 lorries a day to remove the contaminated topsoil.

Early in 1993 Environment Minister Robin Squire used a visit to Wolverhampton to announce the government would be providing the £3.5 million funding for the reclamation work. A subsequent visit saw Inner Cities Minister John Redwood wearing an astronaut-style suit to tour the heavily contaminated site, where he saw work to replace more than 120,000 tonnes of contaminated soil.

Now a three-way joint venture – between the council, theUniversity of Wolverhampton, newly transformed from Wolverhampton Polytechnic, and the local City Challenge board – detailed plans were drawn up for the work, with a two-storey technology centre, a landmark 'communications tower, lecture theatre, dining area and seminar rooms.

Work was finally completed on the first stage of development in 1995, and a string of companies were on the waiting list ready to move in.

Park chief executive of the time, Dr John Cooper, a university lecturer who had nursed the scheme from its early stages, declared: "Wolverhampton Science Park will provide an impressive gateway to the town and bring life to a once derelict area. We hope it comes to symbolise a new confidence.''

By the time of the formal opening ceremony, in October 1996, ambitious plans were already drawn up for a £10 million expansion with hopes of creating up to 2,000 new jobs by 2005, with an 'advanced manufacturing zone' for small and medium sized firms.

But the project stalled, with development work held up by the need to get more funding for the hugely expensive business of decontamination.

It was a time when the Black Country as a whole was starting to realise just how expensive its industrial heritage was going to be, as the bills mounted for cleaning up old factory sites and 'brownfield' land.

It was not until the spring of 1998 that decontamination of the whole 40 acre site was finally completed, at a cost of yet more millions of pounds.

A staggering eight metres of top soil had to be taken off, transported to a dump in Milton Keynes, and replaced with sand.

But in the October of 1998, after £5 million-worth of work, the 22-acre development site on the former gas works was ready to provide a home for a string of manufacturing companies. Some of the new residents have not survived but others, such as Sherwood Stainless Steel, are still thriving.

Wolverhampton Science Park by this stage was already home to 25 companies and was bursting at the seams, with a substantial waiting list of companies wanting to move in, so in 2000 work began on a 30,000 sq ft extension to the star-shaped Technology Centre, at a cost of £2.3 million.

By 2001 the site now supported more than 70 growing new technology businesses but it had run out of room again. It was time for Phase Three.

The final stage of work was completed in 2004 with the construction of a £7 million three-storey 65,000 sq ft building dubbed the Creative Industries Centre. It has become home to a wide variety of companies, most notably hi-tech toy company Wow! Stuff.

A specialist business incubator - under the brand name of SPARK - was established at the same time and has since developed an enviable record in assisting new-start businesses through their early growth stages.

After a decade that has seen the area endure the worse of the banking collapse and the recession, growth is back on the agenda. Now know as the University of Wolverhampton Science Park it will see its final piece of unused land become the site of a new £10.1m Science, Technology and Prototyping Centre, providing high specification laboratory and workshop space for science and engineering businesses the Black Country.

The three storey development will offer 4,000 square metres of space and feature high quality offices, labs and workshops, as well as a café and electric vehicle charging points.

As ever, finding the money has been key and this project has been part-funded through a £4.8m grant from the Growth Deal to the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, with the remaining £5.3m coming from the University of Wolverhampton.