News round-up 28 January 2010
Westminster’s core strategy agreed
Westminster City Council has agreed its Core Strategy, the key element of its Local Development Framework.
Highlighted in the strategy are proposals to improve the look of the capital’s central area with a new emphasis on sustainable and inclusive design and plans to increase affordable housing provision by setting a 1,000 sq m additional floor space threshold as well as a 10-or-more unit threshold to trigger affordable housing.
The strategy also proposes more areas of special quality by designating two new Special Policy Areas - St James's and Savile Row alongside support for wider regeneration of the north west of the City.
The spatial plan also recognises the positive benefits of offices within the Central Activities Zone and Opportunity Areas and amends existing mixed use policy to set a higher threshold (400 sq m or more instead of 200) for retail increases before residential provision is required. This change has been designed to encourage investment and regeneration of Westminster’s key shopping streets.
Find out more information about Westminster’s LDF
Reds’ star goes green
Footballer Gary Neville and his wife Emma have submitted a planning application for a unique, flower-shaped, eco-friendly, single family home on moorland outside Bolton which has been designed to comply with Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
The 8,000 sq ft single-storey home has been selected by ATLAS as an exemplar for inclusion in the Government’s Planning Performance Agreements for Renewable and Low Carbon Energy Scheme’s programme.
The location is in Green Belt and in open countryside. The Neville’s planning consultants say the development meets PPS 7’s criteria as an isolated new house of “exceptional design quality”.
The application to Bolton Council includes plans for solar panels, ground source heat pumps and a sculpture trail.
The couple is understood to have been working up the detailed proposals for three years for what would be a £8m carbon-zero house built into the contours of the land.
The site is close to the Neville’s current 12-bedroom home, a former farmstead between Bolton and Bury in Lancashire.
New community mooted for former Orgreave opencast site
Rothertham Council's Planning Regulatory Board has agreed to support an outline application by Harworth Estates for a new community at Waverley - the former 230-hectare Orgreave opencast site owned by UK Coal.
The application is the largest development that Rotherham has ever considered and involves 3,890 homes, a commercial development comprising office, retail, financial and professional services, leisure activities, a hotel, two primary schools and health and community uses.
The recommendation by the Planning Board, together with a second application for offices, a hotel, retail and leisure facilities for Helical Governetz on land off Highfield Spring, Catcliffe, has be referred to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber.
Surrey Quays makeover
Southwark Council planning committee has resolved to grant outline planning permission for the Surrey Quays Leisure Site to be redeveloped to provide a new residential and entertainment complex. The committee also agreed on the redevelopment of the Decathlon store which will be expanded and will become Decathlon's UK headquarters for its operations.
The proposed redevelopments are to be carried out in phases so the existing cinema, bowling alley, bingo hall and the Decathlon store can stay open.
The Surrey Quays Leisure Site will include over 500 residential units and 123 units for students, a new cinema complex and leisure building that will include restaurants, commercial floor spaces and public and private open space.
The Decathlon redevelopment will provide 430 flats together with new retail and community space and café, restaurants, bars along the waterfront as well as extensive public space works including a new boulevard through the site connecting with the new pedestrian thoroughfare along the water that provides access from the Canada Water station to the Surrey Quays shopping centre.
View the Southwark Council press release
Next step for Salford
Independent planning consultancy DPP has secured outline planning permission for a scheme which will pave the way for the multi-million pound regeneration of the centre of the City of Salford.
The scheme, known as Salford Central, involves some 3.5m sq ft of new office, retail, leisure and hotel facilities as well as new housing on a 17.7-hectare site. The proposals, for English Cities Fund, have been referred to the Government Office for the North West.
Recognition for Birmingham e-planning
Birmingham City Council’s pioneering e-planning service has been recognised as a leading example of service excellence in the UK.
The service has recently achieved the Customer Service Excellence standard, the UK national standard of customer service excellence for public sector organisations, which is overseen by the Cabinet Office.
Read more about Customer Service Excellence
Visit Birmingham City Council website’s planning pages
Southend runway plan on hold
Communities secretary John Denham has issued an article 14 direction over plans by London Southend Airport to extend its runway, preventing the council from deciding the scheme without his authorisation.
Read the council’s press release
Scottish dereliction survey
Latest updated statistics on the levels of vacant and derelict land in Scotland has shown an increase of five hectares compared with the 2008 survey. Urban vacant land decreased by 41 hectares and derelict land increased by 47 hectares.
The data showed that between 2002 and 2009 there has been a two per cent increase in the total levels of vacant and derelict land in Scotland, from 10,646 hectares in 2002 to 10,863 hectares by 2009 (a net increase of 217 hectares).
Access the vacant and derelict land survey
Welsh flood schemes
Two more North Wales towns are to benefit from flood defence schemes thanks to funding from the Welsh Assembly Government. Involved is a £6.4m scheme to protect Tywyn, in Gwynedd. The project will prevent an estimated 78 properties from risk of annual flooding. The other initiative comprises a £1.9m Flood project to protect Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, which should reduce the risk of flooding for an estimated 90 properties.
Read the Welsh Assembly Government press release
Old school guidance
Refurbishing old school buildings is often the best use of resources and the most sustainable way of modernising them, English Heritage has highlighted as it launched two new publications that highlight the value and potential of older schools.
One is a new guidance document, Refurbishing Historic Schools Buildings, published by English Heritage with the support of the Department of Children, Schools and Families. The advice demonstrates the huge potential and flexibility of traditional school buildings which can be adapted, made more energy efficient and expanded with new buildings alongside.
Read the English Heritage press release
Green infrastructure health check
The Government’s adviser on urban design, CABE, is calling on urban local authorities to assess the health of their green infrastructure.
Launched today as part of CABE’s ‘Grey to Green’ campaign, the GI health check is an online tool for urban councils in England to find out how well they are prioritising their green spaces.
The ten GI health check questions ask councils to assess the priority given to green spaces and the staff and resources to manage them.
Local authorities will receive feedback that rates their performance, helping them identify where they need to make improvements, as well as inviting them to participate in CABE’s GI pilots, to be launched later this year.
Read more about the Grey to Green campaign
Call for Heritage Site nominations
Culture minister Margaret Hodge has confirmed that the Government plans to put forward fewer candidate locations to UNESCO for consideration as World Heritage Sites.
Confirmation came as her department launched a competition to find more cultural and natural heritage places of global importance, which are fit to become future UK World Heritage Sites.
Local authorities and other bodies will have the opportunity to nominate such sites for assessment by an independent expert panel. A new ‘Tentative List’ of candidate sites will then be drawn up for submission to UNESCO in 2011, with the first nomination going forward from 2012.
Those on the last UK Tentative List, drawn up in 1999, which have not so far gone forward for consideration by UNESCO, will be able to apply again for inclusion on the new list.
Read the Department for Culture, Media and Sport press release
Designer invitation
Westminster City Council is looking for ambitious designers and architects to help improve the setting of one of London's iconic landmarks.
The Piazza outside Byzantine-style Westminster Cathedral is set to be revamped and the council is calling on highly-skilled landscape designers and architects who want to create a new public space to contact the council to register their interest.
The council is also looking for a new design for Wilcox Place, located just off Victoria Street near the Piazza. The company who best met the design brief's criteria will be commissioned to design both spaces.
Read Westminster City Council’s press release
Hydro power boost
Scotland’s hydroelectricity power potential is nearly double the amount previously estimated, according to a new study published by the Scottish Government which has identified opportunities for many new small-scale projects.
Turbine appeal
Npower renewables has successfully appealed against Maldon Council’s refusal of the company’s ten-turbine wind farm earmarked for land at Bradwell in Essex.
Read the Npower renewables press release
Balham hotel
Wandsworth Council’s planning applications committee has approved plans for a new 90-room hotel in Balham town centre. The site at Balham High Road in South West London is currently occupied by a disused office building.
The plan involves adding two storeys to the existing building and constructing a part four and part six-storey rear extension. The design has a number of environmentally friendly features including a green roof and solar panels.
Read the council’s press release
Read Chris Kendall's thoughts about the Planning Portal and the wider planning landscape in his new blog (which will open in a new window).
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