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Design and Access Statement

10 Affordable houses plus one self build house

Park Farm, Cleeve,

March 2020

Artist’s impression – aerial view from the South East

for Seend Community Land Trust In partnership with White Horse Housing

PKA Architects ltd Company registered in and Wales No 8605083 Directors: Peter Kent (BA(Arch) DipArch DipCHSM AMRSPH RIBA, Tom Kent BSc(Hons) MArch RIBA, Clare Kent BSc(Soc.Sci) PGCE HNC Registered Office: Featherbrook, Whistley Road, Potterne, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 5TD Tel. 01380 725688 Fax. 0843 5120002 www.pka-architects.com [email protected]

Design and Access Statement – Park Farm Seend March 2020

1. Introduction

The development proposed is a community led development and adheres to the principles of Community Led Housing, an initiative supported and funded by central government through the Community Housing Fund.

This design and access statement describes design proposals for 10 affordable houses for rent and shared ownership, with an additional self-build serviced plot in the Parish of Seend by Seend Community Land Trust (CLT) in partnership White Horse Housing (WHH).

The site is located on an unnamed road in Seend Cleeve to the west of Bollands Hill (see Figure 1). The site became available following a call for sites in conjunction with the local Neighbourhood Plan group. It was followed by a Housing Needs Survey conducted by Wiltshire Council in conjunction with Seend Parish Council and Seend CLT.

The proposals are for 10 no. 2 storey terraced and semi-detached homes consisting of: • 2 x 1 bed 2 person dwellings • 5 x 2 bed 4 person dwellings • 3 x 3 bed 5 person dwellings • 1 x 4 bed self-build serviced plot The designs described in this Design and Access Statement and illustrated on the supporting drawings have been developed with reference to:

 Homes England’s Design & Quality Standards;  Passivhaus Classic Certification;  Building for Life;  Secure by Design;  Lifetime Homes;  WHH Development and Partnering Protocol. The following consultants have been employed to develop the designs to planning application stage:

 Nixey Powell Partnership Limited - Quantity Surveyors  PKA Architects Ltd - Architects  Brunel Surveys Ltd - Topographical Surveyors  Cole Easdon Consultants - Land Drainage Consultants  Wildwood Ecology Ltd. - Ecologists  Wessex Archaeology - Archaeology and heritage services The proposals have been developed in consultation with the local community, Seend Parish Council and Wiltshire Council.

2: Background

Seend CLT formed in 2018 to assist the village in the delivery of affordable homes for local people. They are a locally powered initiative, supported by national and local government through the National Community Land Trust Network and other agencies including the Wiltshire and Swindon Community Led Housing Partnership, Homes of Our Own. The Seend CLT aims to enable parishioners to access affordable

PKA Architects Ltd Page 2 Design and Access Statement – Park Farm Seend March 2020 housing and develop, preserve and care for local assets for their benefit in perpetuity. Any Seend parishioners over the age of 16 years can join the CLT as members, of which there are currently 259.

In November 2018 Seend CLT appointed White Horse Housing (WHH), a specialist provider of affordable homes in rural areas with a proven track record within this area and village, to assist them with the development of their affordable housing for the parish. This followed interviews that they conducted with three potential Registered Providers. Seend CLT have been working with WHH, Seend Parish Council and the Neighbourhood Plan to ensure that their vision for delivery is in alignment. WHH were appointed before the Rural Housing Needs Survey (RHNS) was undertaken and a site was identified as to enable Seend CLT to have additional support in their approach to these two areas.

3: The Site and Location

Proposed site Plan – not to scale

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During the site selection process six sites were identified and considered in terms of their suitability for delivery of Affordable Housing; ultimately the site which is the subject of this application is a Rural Exception Site. The sites that were reviewed had all been put forward through the Neighbourhood Plan as potential sites for development and following this each land owner was contacted to ask if they would be happy for their site to be considered for development by Seend CLT. Further details of the identification and selection of sites can be found in the Statement of Community Involvement, also submitted as part of this planning application.

The Park Farm site is located adjacent to the current settlement of the village. The site is bounded by a line of trees and hedgerow with open land to the west and houses to the south. Consequently, the developed site will fit naturally adjacent to the existing village footprint.

The site area is 0.327ha, the land is currently used for agricultural/pasture purposes and was identified in the pre-application advice as being Grade 3 agricultural land, based on pre-1988 mapping. The site is mostly flat and is bordered by two fields, which are also used for agricultural/pasture purposes. There is also a highway and houses adjacent to the east and south of the site, respectively.

There are no ecological designations on or in close proximity to the site i.e. a European designated site, Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI). The site is approximately 100m south of the County Wildlife site which is a SNCI.

Site frontage on left of highway – photo taken from South corner

The site is approximately 125m north of The Brewery Inn (Grade II listed) and Barn at Park Farm which is also Grade II listed. There is no known recorded archaeology on or near to the site.

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Poor quality Willow at the norther edge of the site

There are no Tree Preservation Orders on or in close proximity to the site. There are currently 3 Willow trees located at the edge of a drainage ditch adjacent to farmland which, due to safety concerns will be removed from the site.

Site highway frontage to the right photo taken looking SW

The site has been identified as being in the Environment Agency’s Flood Zone 1 and surface water issues have been identified. The drainage strategy included with this planning application provides mitigation for this.

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The site is located approximately 960m from the nearest proposed Seend Parish Local Green Space located between Bollands Hill and the A361 (as identified as ‘1’ on the attached map). There are 7 sites identified as emerging possible Local Green Spaces in the Neighbourhood Plan proposals, all of which are located in the most densely populated area of Seend Parish. Pre-application discussions with Wiltshire Council’s Highways Officer confirmed that there is no record of public rights of way across the site.

View South into Seend Cleeve from the Southern corner of the site

4: Consultation

Since the conception of Seend CLT, 17 public meetings have been held where both members of Seend CLT and non-members have been encouraged to attend. In addition to this, Seend CLT have an accessible website which has been kept regularly updated to include the plans and revised plans for the site, has a ‘frequently asked questions’ section ( https://www.seendclt.org/site-faqs.html ) and a form available for interested parties to leave feedback on the proposed development. Further details of public consultation can be found in the Statement of Community Involvement, also submitted as part of this planning application.

In April 2019 PKA Architects Ltd were appointed to develop proposals for the site and public consultation meetings were held monthly from September 2019 to January 2020 in the Irene Usher Pavilion, Seend, where the draft plans were presented. The meetings were well attended by CLT members, local residents, a number of Parish Councillors, members of WHH staff, the PKA architectural team and members of the Wiltshire Community Led Housing Partnership (WCLHP). In addition to the drawings being presented and amended each time, a number of comments were received through feedback forms on Seend CLT’s website, by email and letters sent to the Seend CLT and 7 applications were also received from people wishing to rent one of the homes.

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Each question and comment was considered in the development of the design, and each question was responded to on the Seend CLT website ( https://www.seendclt.org/site-consultation.html , https://www.seendclt.org/site-faqs.html ), at the consultation meetings that took place in October 2019, November 2019 and December 2019. The development has been designed to minimise impact on neighbouring properties in terms of overlooking from the site and any impact due to the mass of the development seen from the opposite side of Bollands Hill. The layout respects the existing hedge and tree lines. The final consultation event and subsequent comments forwarded raised no concerns with regard the scale and principle of brick and slate used as the primary materials in the design proposals.

The following are noted particularly in response to some points raised by the community during the consultation:

Highways The site is located on the unnamed road through Seend Cleeve and runs from its junction with Trowbridge Road (A361) to the south and its junction with Bollands Hill to the north. The nearest town is , approximately 4 miles by road, other nearby towns are Devizes and Trowbridge, both approximately 6 miles away. The road to the front of the site is partially covered by a 30mph speed limit and partially within the derestricted length.

Site Access The vehicular access onto the site has three points, one for the self-build plot and two for the 10 units of Affordable Housing. This is located as far as possible from the bend leading towards the A365 Bath Road. This access avoids being directly opposite the adjacent house driveways. The roads within the site will remain in the ownership of Seend CLT, to be leased to WHH. Appropriate levels of on-site parking are proposed to avoid additional on street parking (27 spaces for the affordable homes and 3 for the serviced self-build plot). Site access, parking, and development layout have all been subject of pre-application discussions with the Wiltshire Council’s Highways Officer . The accesses from the site have been designed to achieve visibility splays of 2.4m x 33m in both directions, with intervisibility splays which would secure visibility and pedestrian safety across the site frontage.

Site servicing The Highway comments advised the applicant should ensure that waste collection from inside the site is acceptable or, if not, that adequate bin storage is provided to the front of the site for collection days. The scheme incorporates bin storage areas for each individual property and points which residents can move their bins to ready for collection on the designated collection days. Refuse collection vehicles will stop on the public highway, as they do for the other homes to the south of the site. Speed limits in Seend were raised through the public consultation process, in particular, requests to extend the limit of the 30mph speed limits throughout the parish. At the request of the CLT the WCLHP met with Wiltshire Council’s Traffic Engineering Manager to discuss the options available to address the concerns raised. In order to accommodate the development frontage within the 30mph Speed limit at Seend Cleeve agreement has been reached that the existing speed limit can be extended past the extent of the site, to encompass the new development frontage in the northerly direction as part of the development. If further extension(s) are sought a formal review would be required. Full details of the discussions are included in Appendix 1. It is considered that emergency vehicular access is more efficient with the proposed site layout and vehicle movements are well distributed across the three access points.

Public Transport

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The site is located within close walking distance to bus stops in both directions. The village of Seend is served by the hourly Service 49 Trowbridge, Devizes & Swindon bus, this is in addition to the Seend Shuttle which operates to Devizes and Melksham. The Service 49 runs through Seend and the nearest bus stop for this route to the site is 1km away. The Seend Shuttle runs through Seend Cleeve and the nearest bus stop for this route is 0.25km away.

The site is located within walking distance to the Brewery Inn and approximately 1.2km away from key amenities including Seend Primary School and the Post Office on a route which has intermittent pavements and is uphill. The bus services described above enable access to these key amenities throughout the week.

Walking and Cycling The CLT have responded to concerns raised that there were no pedestrian pavements shown on the initial site layout options. The plans for the proposed development have been amended to include a pedestrian pavement that runs along the inside of the existing hedge line on the site frontage, that will remain. The pavement will be a continuation of the existing pavement from the south, through the village and will be illuminated with low level solar powered lighting. This will enable safe pedestrian access through the site. To the north of the site there is no exiting pedestrian provision to connect to. Pedestrian access will be designed fully in accordance with Part M of the building regulations.

5. Drainage

The site has been identified as wholly being within the Environment Agency Flood Zone 1. Some surface water issues have been identified but there is a drain that appears to run south to north in proximity to the western boundary of the site. The consultation process identified concerns about surface water on the site.

The attached separate report and indicative drainage strategy was conducted by Cole Easdon Consultants which confirms that the foul drainage can be taken to the existing foul main sewer running along the road frontage, while surface water, suitably attenuated can outfall to the existing ditch running along the Wester field boundary with betterment in outfall rate.

6. Ecology

The attached separate preliminary report conducted by Wildwood Ecology identifies that further investigations are required and when these can take place.

7. Secure by Design

While this will be dealt with in detail at a later stage both in this statement and in the design process, the scheme – both layout and individual dwelling design, has been designed to accord with Secure by Design standards.

8. Pre-application

Discussions have taken place between WCLHP and planning officers resulting in amendments to the site layout to better accord with good planning, while confirming that the site can be regarded as a suitable ‘exceptions site’ for Affordable Housing. The discussions also confirmed that the ‘enabling development’, the provision of a serviced site for the land-owner's granddaughter for a self-build house was

PKA Architects Ltd Page 8 Design and Access Statement – Park Farm Seend March 2020 proportionate, and would, in any case allow a local young family to remain in the village. This conforms with emerging neighbourhood plan policies in this regard.

Artist’s impression of the approach to the site from the North East

9. Brief and Areas

Seend CLT worked with the WCLHP team to assess 6 potential sites and provisional advice was given by the planning team on the ranking of each site in terms of potential for development. The Park Farm site ranked as the most developable and the land owner was approached. An Options agreement is now in place for the site.

Whilst the negotiations on land were being undertaken, in April 2019 the ‘Seend Parish Housing Needs Survey Report’ (included within the planning submission) was undertaken. It identified that:

“The recommendations may not represent the parish’s full housing need as responses were not received from every household. In order to fully assess the housing need in the parish, the recommendations need to be considered alongside evidence provided by Wiltshire Council’s Housing Register, the Strategic Housing Market Assessment, and the advice of allocation staff who manage the Register .”.

The report noted that the:

“75.8% of households in the parish were owner-occupying, 12.5% were renting from social landlords, 9.6% were privately renting, 0.2% was shared ownership and 1.9% of households were living rent free. ”

The report concluded by recommending the provision of affordable accommodation and based on the responses to its survey outlined a need for up to 9 subsidised homes. This evidence, in conjunction with the number of people currently on the Homes 4 Wiltshire Housing register and the Wiltshire Self Build register, identifies that in total there is a requirement for 13 affordable units currently, which includes a mix of affordable rented and shared ownership houses, as well as three self-build plots in the parish of Seend. A copy of the RHNS and housing need data can be found at Appendix 2. Therefore, the delivery of 10 Affordable Housing units and one self-build plot will go some way to helping address this need.

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Artist’s impression of the site viewed from the South East

The range of 10 dwellings responds directly to the specific households and housing types identified in the Housing Needs Survey for the parish of Seend, and as a Rural Exception Site the proposals therefore meet the needs of the Wiltshire's Core Policies and caveats as outlined in the pre-application advice.

WHH are responsible for building and managing the houses and development having leased the land from the CLT who will thus maintain local control over the site. On receipt of applications from prospective tenants WHH will assess local connection in line with their Allocations Policy and alongside the CLT’s Allocations Plan. This will be done through one or more of the following classifications:  The applicant currently lives in the parish or has lived in the parish in the past;  The applicant currently has close family members, such as parents, children or brothers and sisters living in the parish;  The applicant works in the parish;  The applicant has another strong connection to the village. The CLT’s allocations plan will be finalised and submitted with the s106 agreement. The dwellings have been designed to Passivhaus standard and are positioned on the site to ensure that they meet the specified standards. The site and units have been designed to Homes England’s design criteria and Housing Quality Indicators (HQIs) and will achieve Lifetime Homes standards. The development offers inclusive access and is designed to allow future adaptions to accommodate specific access needs. This is achieved by means of generous spaces and allowance in the designs for the installation of a stair lift, or in some cases a vertical lift. The Gross Internal Area of all the units exceed the nationally described space standard as shown in the following table:

Dwelling type National proposed Standard One bedroom 2 storey house – 2 persons 58m² 61m² Two bedroom 2 storey house – 4 persons 79m² 82m²

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Three bedroom house 2 storey plus attic bedroom – 5 99m² 101m² persons

The dwellings are grouped into three terraced units, two of 4 units and one of 2 units which reflect the size and scale of recent and historic dwellings found within the immediate area and elsewhere throughout Wiltshire.

Artist’s impression – aerial view from the North West

Each dwelling has a private garden containing a shed for cycle storage and the site has two composting areas which can be used by both residents and contractors when maintaining the communal areas. Each dwelling also has 2 parking spaces (2.4 x 4.8m), accessed via a shared surface. The parking spaces situated with paths to the side of them, or spaces for paths will be accessible. There are an additional 5 visitor parking spaces which exceeds Wiltshire Council’s minimum parking standards. The dwellings have individual bin stores located at the front of the homes and shared bin collection points designed to accept the council allocation.

Infrastructure for electric vehicle charging points will be in place for each dwelling to enable any residents who own or would like to own an electric vehicle will be able to easily install an electric vehicle charge point.

10. Adaptability

It will be seen from the submitted plans that the three bed, 5-person houses make use of the attic space to create the third bedroom. In other respect they have the same footprint and general layout as the two bed units. These two bed houses have been designed to allow the future adaptation of the loft space into a third bedroom with minimal internal disruption, and in the meantime will provide insulated attic storage with a hatch and secure ladder.

11. Layout

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There are a number of factors that help inform the layout of the site:

Edge of village While there is further existing mature residential development some way further to the NE, the site will form a new ‘closure’ to the village of Seend Cleeve and as such it was regarded as important that the design reflect this. Earlier planning advice had suggested that a continuation of the ribbon development existing immediately to the South should continue, but this was changed early in the design process, partly due to responses from the Community Engagement events better described in the Statement of Community Involvement. Continuing the ribbon on just the West of the highway, with open field opposite to the East could have invited further development in the future and this was something that the village and the CLT were keen to avoid. In the event, turning the majority of the units perpendicular to the road avoided this and created a firm ‘stop’ to the village while also facilitating another major aspect of this scheme.

Passivhaus Once again, this aspect of the development is far more comprehensively dealt with in the separate Energy Statement, but it is relevant to note here that turning the majority of the units to run in east/west terraces allows for south facing elevations and roofs, important in both Passivhaus design and in the provision of PV panels on roofs, enabling the development to become Carbon-neutral in use.

Views Creating gaps between the self-build house and the southern terrace (plots 1-4), the southern terrace and the centre semi-detached units (plots 4-5) and between these and the Northern terrace (plots 7-10) allows views into and through the development which would have been blocked by a simple continuation of the ribbon development. A further advantage is described below.

Highways and parking The development has been designed to minimise the number of access points onto the highway. There are three, one to the south is private to the self-build four-bed house while each of the other two serve parking areas which provide parking in excess of that required by Wiltshire Council’s Parking Standards (1 space per one-bed unit and 2 spaces for each two and three bed units). The self-build house will have three parking spaces in accordance with Wiltshire Council’s Parking Standards.

The highway requirements noted above would lead to a provision of 20 spaces including visitor spaces for the affordable units, while the submitted plan shows 27 spaces. This is regarded as justified as a result of comments and suggestions made at the community engagement events; infrastructure will be provided to allow each house to have a dedicated electric vehicle charging point to take advantage of on-site generation and the recent innovative tariffs offered by smaller renewable energy suppliers.

The sight lines shown for the access points conform with Highway requirements within a 30mph speed limit. At present, the 30mph limit starts just at the southern edge of the site, such that the highway passing the site is unrestricted. As can be seen earlier in this statement there are plans to extend the 30 mph limit to encompass and extend past the Northern edge of the proposed development, such that the three access points would then be within this limit, and the extension of the speed limit is regarded as crucial to the development of this site, and hence to the grant of planning consent, and will be covered by a suitable agreement.

In order to both allow the retention of the mature hedgerow along the ditch fronting the highway along the site Eastern boundary, and to minimise the required culverting of this ditch, a pedestrian path has

PKA Architects Ltd Page 12 Design and Access Statement – Park Farm Seend March 2020 been included within the site frontage, rather than within the limits of highway land. The result will maintain the rural feel of the approach to the village, significantly softening the impact of the development on this approach. Pedestrian permeability is maintained by providing a path within the site to the west of the hedgerow which will allow all homes to have safe and convenient footway access into the village, connecting to the existing highway footway at the southern edge of the development.

Accessibility As earlier described, all the units have been designed to be accessible and adaptable inside. The site slopes gently from South to North by approximately 1.4m, allowing easy ramping and access to all units in full accordance with current Part M access requirements under the Building regulations. No ramping need exceeds 1:20. Each house will be provided with a lockable bin and cycle store and rear shed, and there are convenient bin collection points provided, all within 30m of the dwellings served. As already identified within this document, the site and unit designs have been developed according to:

• Homes England’s Design & Quality Standards; and • Lifetime Homes.

The design therefore fulfils the above requirements and following criteria:

• Equality Act 2010; • The Approved Document to Part M and Part B; and • Building Regulation requirements which will incorporate BS 8300:2001 ‘Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people - Code of Practice’.

Crime Prevention and Security It has already been noted that the detailed design of the development will satisfy the requirements for Secure by Design accreditation.

Existing hedgerow around the site will be strengthened and augmented, with new native hedge planting to the open fields to north and West. Divisions between houses will be min 1.5m Fences, with privacy panels at 1.8m immediately to the rear of the garden elevations. Each property will have private lockable rear access gates. The front elevations are set back from the path by at least the depth of the porch/bin store with planted borders creating ‘defensible space’ between the porches.

Placing the north/south path within the existing hedgerow ensures that this path is well supervised by overlooking properties. Sophisticated solar powered low-level lighting will be provided to this path and to each of the dwellings, ensuring adequate illumination for security and convenience. The space between the blocks has been designed to both minimise overlooking, and foster a feeling of community and security, with all paths well overlooked.

12: Sustainability

The development is to be designed to achieve Passivhaus certification, and with the addition of PV panel arrays to each of the affordable units the overall development of plots 1-10 will be carbon-neutral in use. I refer to the attached separate Energy report which contains additional detail

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The construction of the affordable units will employ ‘I’ section timber frames, which both minimise the use of timber in the frames and minimise ‘cold-bridging’ across the walls, significantly improving the thermal performance. Insulation will be a low carbon-impact material such as cellulose, and all units will be insulated up to the pitched roof. This means that even the 2 bed units will have a warm loft space for storage or future expansion as described earlier.

Water butts will be provided to allow householders to capture rain water for re-use in garden irrigation. Compost bins are provided to allow the management landscaper to make best use of cuttings etc from the common landscaped areas.

The infrastructure for electric vehicle charging points is provided for each affordable dwelling.

Scale The scale of the development, building spans, roof pitches etc follow the local vernacular and are entirely in keeping with the wide range of buildings existing in the village.

Materials Examination of the local material vernacular reveals a large range of options for materials, but within the approach to the site there is a consistency of orange/red (Caen Hill) brick and either bath stone or, in a few cases a contrasting yellow or buff brick. Taking this as a guide and taking account of comments and suggestions made at a number of community engagement events the development will be predominantly red / orange brick with contrast brick, or in the case of the self-build 4 bed house cast stone.

The affordable development, with each unit having an identical porch / bin store in galvanised steel and naturally weathering British timber cladding, will have a contemporary feel that is entirely comfortable with the local vernacular. A 3D computer model was created in order to demonstrate this which proved both useful and popular at community events. Images from this model are included to support the application. Natural slate, which is likely to be Spanish, has been chosen for the roofs of the affordable units. The PV panels can be integrated into these so that they are nearly flush and not, as is most common ‘planted on’. The final decision on precise materials has yet to be made but will be based upon the notes above.

13: Landscape It has already been noted that the existing hedgerow fronting the site to the highway will be retained save where broken for the three new access drives. This will be augmented with native species, and a new native hedge planted along the northern and Western boundaries of the site, as shown on the submitted site plan.

There will be planting of deciduous trees to provide summer shading while allowing winter light to permeate, along with shrub planting within the site. All gardens will be turfed or seeded as appropriate. Full details of the landscaping scheme, based on the above and on the submitted plan, will be agreed with the Council in response to a planning condition and will have regard to Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy, in particular, Core Policy 51.

14: Policy Context

Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy, adopted in January 2015, provides up-to-date strategic planning policy for Wiltshire. The proposed development that is the subject of this planning application actively contributes to meeting the following strategic objectives as described in the Core Strategy:

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 Strategic objective 2: addressing climate change  Strategic objective 3: providing everyone with access to a decent, affordable home  Strategic objective 4: helping to build resilient communities  Strategic objective 5: protecting and enhancing the natural, historic and built environment The Core Policies detailed in the Core Strategy that are relevant to this planning application and that this planning application conforms to are as follows:

Core Policy 2: Delivery Strategy Core Policy 2 refers to the ‘exceptions policies’ which ‘seek to respond to local circumstance and national policy. The policies include Rural Exception Sites (Core Policy 44) and Supporting Rural Life (Core Policy 48). How this proposed development is compliant with these policies is detailed further below.

Core Policy 41: Sustainable Construction and Low Carbon Energy Core Policy 41 “identifies how sustainable construction and low-carbon energy will be integral to all new development in Wiltshire”. This planning application exceeds the requirements of this policy through reducing Wiltshire’s carbon footprint through the design of the site as detailed in sections 10, 11 and 12 of this statement.

Artist’s impression – internal site view past plots 5-6 looking North towards plots 8-10

Core Policy 44: Rural Exceptions Sites Core Policy 44 “allows for the allocation of, or granting of planning permission for, small sites comprising Affordable Housing only as an exception to normal policies”. This planning application meets this policy because the building of 10 Affordable Homes partially meets the housing need identified in the RHNS conducted in April 2019, plus 1 serviced self-build plot. The site that this planning application is the subject of is adjoining Seend Cleeve, which sits within the Parish of Seend.

The proposed development does not include cross-subsidy from open market sales, but it does include the provision of 1 serviced self-build plot which is required to enable the Affordable Housing element of the scheme to be delivered.

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After analysis of all the sites available, the Park Farm site was identified as being most developable. Negotiations were therefore undertaken with the landowner, who insisted that they would only be able to bring forward the site if a self-build plot was included. From looking at the analysis of the other sites, this became the only viable site. WHH undertook negotiations with the landowner and a compromise was agreed to include a serviced self-build plot to reduce the cost of the land. Therefore, making the site a viable option for the CLT and enabling the release of the land to bring forward Affordable Housing.

This planning application takes into account the National Planning Policy Framework alongside the Self- Build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (as amended by the Housing and Planning Act 2016). Wiltshire Council, as a relevant authority, are required under the Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (as amended by the Housing and Planning Act 2016) to keep a self-build register and have regard to the register when carrying out their planning, housing, land disposal and regeneration functions. In the planning context, this refers to both plan-making and decision-taking functions.

As a relevant authority, Wiltshire Council must also give suitable development permission to enough suitable serviced plots of land to meet the demand for self-build and customer housebuilding in their area. Data from Wiltshire Council’s self-build register in April 2019 showed a need for 3 serviced self- build plots in the Parish of Seend. The proposed development detailed in this planning application would meet a third of this need with a genuine self-build plot. In addition to this, WHH have engaged with the landowner of the Park Farm site and have negotiated the provision of a self-build plot in order to facilitate the provision of 10 affordable homes.

The proposed development described within this planning application is situated in a location where employment and services are accessible from the site, with the nearest bus stop being located 0.25km away from the site. The scale and type of development is appropriate to and will respect the character and nature of the settlement by ensuring that the development is in keeping with the wide range of buildings existing in the village through the proposals described in this statement. The Affordable Housing provided within the proposed development will be available for defined local needs, both initially and on subsequent change of occupant through the use of WHH’s Allocations Policy, who are a specialist rural housing provider, and through the negotiations of a s106 agreement. The proposed development will have a number of benefits, in particular that the proposed development has been led by the community. The CLT has been formed by residents of the Parish of Seend and consist of 259 resident members. As is demonstrated in the Statement of Community involvement, there has been significant and enhanced community engagement and involvement and engagement with the Seend Parish Council has been consistent throughout the process. The CLT has been actively working alongside the Neighbourhood Development Plan Group, members of which have attended and actively contributed to meetings held by the CLT.

Core Policy 45: Meeting Wiltshire’s Housing Needs Core Policy 45 ‘provides the basis for considering dwelling type, density and mix of housing to be built’. The number, type and mix of housing proposed on this development has been determined by the data collated from the RHNS, the Wiltshire Self-Build Register and Homes 4 Wiltshire. The Affordable Housing includes one, two and three-bedroom homes with rented and shared ownership tenures. The internal designs of the homes are yet to be finalised; but will include provision for adaptations.

Core Policy 48: Supporting Rural Life Core Policy 48 explains the approach taken to support rural communities, outside the limits of development of Principle Settlements, Market Towns, Local Service Centres and Large Villages and outside the existing built area of Small Villages. The proposed development that is the subject of this

PKA Architects Ltd Page 16 Design and Access Statement – Park Farm Seend March 2020 planning application has regard to this policy. The proposed development has had significant involvement from the community in particular in regard to the layout and design of the development and the proposed materials to be used. The affordable homes will remain in the ownership of the local community, in the form of the CLT, in perpetuity. The proposed development meets Core Policy 44 and detailed site assessments were undertaken of available land, including land available within nearby settlements. The site at Park Farm was identified as the most viable site for development.

Core Policy 57: Ensuring High Quality Design And Place Shaping Sections 10, 11 and 12 of this statement set out the layout, sustainability and landscape of the proposed development. Within these sections it is detailed how the development has been informed by a thorough understanding of the locality and the development site. The layout and design is based on a thorough understanding of the site itself and seeks to maximise the benefits of not only the site’s characteristics, but also the characteristics of the existing settlement to ensure that that development integrates into its surroundings. The selected materials, the retention of the existing hedgerow and planting of new shrubs and trees, along with the overall design of the site enhances the character of the locality.

15: Conclusion This community led housing scheme will meet the declared needs for Affordable Housing for the Parish of Seend in a manner that will meet all the relevant standards and with both affordability and nominations under the control of the community in perpetuity. The affordable homes are designed, and will be constructed, to Passivhaus standard and be carbon-neutral in use, which, put simply means that the tenant/shared owner of a two-bedroom house can expect fuel bills for all energy use to be well under £200.00 per year while the house is maintained at a comfortable 21°C. The site has been demonstrated to be the most suitable site within the parish currently available for this type of development and has met the requirements to be regarded as an Exception Site as defined in Core Policy 44 of Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy.

Artist’s impression Plots 1-4 north elevation

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