Office ‘campus’ with a gym and bar

The leisure facilities are part of a 15,000sq m ‘campus’ programming firm Codemasters is hoping to create on the site of its headquarters at Lower Farm in Stoneythorpe.

The firm has applied for outline planning permission to demolish a former barn and some existing office buildings and replace them over time with six new buildings, extending and converting current four-storey offices into a 100-bedroom staff accomodation block.

Plans also include a new entrance off the A425 and take into account the possible construction of the HS2 high speed rail link between London and Birmingham.

Around 530 people work at the headquarters, where founders David and Robin Darling started the company in a back bedroom of the farm in 1987. In a statement supporting the application, the firm, which has an annual turnover of more than £100 million, says expansion would enable up to 1,000 people to work at the site, with leisure facilities necessary to attract the best potential employees.

Stratford District Council’s planning committee will discuss the plans at Kineton High School on Wednesday at 6pm.