DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT UNIT 2 Replacement HALFWAY FARM DOCKENFIELD ROAD GU10 4LP

Contents:

1. Introduction 2. Location 3. The Site 4. Planning History 5. The Proposal & Design 6. Energy 7. Environment 8. Access 9. Occupancy and Movement

1. Introduction: This Design, Access, Energy & Environmental statement is in support of a planning application on behalf of Martin Cashmore Property Limited and relating to Unit 2, Halfway Farm, Dockenfield Road, Bucks Horn Oak, Near ,

The application seeks full planning permission to demolish an outdated brick built car maintenance/MOT unit with asbestos roof and to replace it with a purpose-built workshop with associated offices, rest rooms and storage areas. This new building will be split into two units of equal size. One of the new units will be used for a continuation of motor trade use but to a much lesser extent and the other unit will be used for an extension of Martin Cashmore Fencing, already operating from the site.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 1 GU10 4LP

2. Location:

The small village of Bucks Horn Oak lies 6km directly to the south of the Surrey town of Farnham, close to the Surrey/ border. The market town of Alton in Hampshire is 6km to the west. Bucks Horn Oak is on the A325 Farnham to road that links with the A31 to the north and the A3 to the south. Bentley railway station on the Waterloo line is a short walk away. Bucks Horn Oak has a community of approximately 115 houses and a number of commercial operations including this application site. There is also a petrol station with shop and hand car wash. The village is within a mile of a number of leisure facilities including a large garden centre with Birdworld, Alice Holt Forest Go Ape and Golf Club. An extract from the EHDC interactive proposals map depicting the site is shown below.

Figure 1: Extract from EHDC Interactive map showing proposal site

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 2 GU10 4LP

The site is located just outside the settlement boundary of the village, within the bounds of District Council. Buck Horn Oak is also within the National Park and is surrounded by a rural area of rolling hills and fields where farming is predominant. Adjacent to the proposal site is Alice Holt Forest, an area of mixed coniferous and deciduous woodland controlled by the Allis Holt Research Institute, the research headquarters of the Forestry Commission. It is also a Site of Important Nature Conservation.

3. The Site:

The commercial/industrial estate at Halfway Farm is accessed via a gated macadam track off the Dockenfield Road at its junction with the A325. The premises comprise three main buildings with associated outbuildings and wood storage area set within a site area of approximately 8500m2.

Fig 2: Front east elevation of the unit 2 to be demolished.

Fig 3: Rear view of the unit to be demolished.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 3 GU10 4LP

Fig 4: North side view of the building to be demolished.

Fig 5: Internal view of the unit 2 during its use in vehicle maintenance. The underside of the asbestos roof without insulation is clearly visible.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 4 GU10 4LP

Building number 1, on the southern end of the site, is a modern steel framed building, 6.600m high x 13.000m wide x 19.000m long clad in dark green plastic-coated trapezoidal profile metal sheet. It was constructed in 2014 (SDNP/13/03019/FUL). The building has two large roller shutter doors on its east elevation and personnel fire escape doors on the west and south elevations. Internally the building is completely open plan. Vehicle parking is on the macadam front apron and the gravel surfaced rear. This building was recently granted Planning Approval to add a single storey side extension for an office together with rest rooms associated with this building (Planning Ref: SDNP/20/01793/FUL).

Fig 6: View showing Units number 1 and 2 to the right of picture.

Building number 2 is a much older pre-war building with a later extension. Overall, it is approximately 23.300m long and 14.600m wide. It varies in height with combined pitched and flat roofs. The walls are of red brick. Car parking is to the front on a concrete hardstanding and to a gravelled area to the north side. The pitched roof is of asbestos-cement.

Fig 7: View looking north on the access road. Unit number 3 showing in the background.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 5 GU10 4LP

Building number 3 is operated and owned by Martin Cashmore Fencing and measures approximately 6.600m high x 13.600m wide x 31.000m long. It is a modern steel framed structure clad in a similar fashion to building number 1. The front section of the building has two stories with offices on the first floor and a shop and reception on the ground floor. The rear is a storage area (SDNP/16/01898/FUL).

Outside, is a well-kept open space given mostly to storage of fencing supplies, material collection area and parking. The outbuildings house various fencing related operational equipment.

Fig 8: View looking south down the access road

The boundaries to the west and north of the estate are mostly 4.000m high mixed species hedging interlinked with fencing of various types. To the east is a post and wire fence and a ditch facing Alice Holt forest. The southern boundary to Halfway Farm is a 2.000m high close board fence.

Fig 9: View looking east towards the large fenced storage area. Alice Holt in the background.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 6 GU10 4LP

4. Planning History: From 1996 – 2011 there were 20 various applications on the site under Reference no: 21409 SDNP/13/03019/FUL Approved September 2013 Detached building for MOT business after demolition of disused out building. SDNP/16/01898/FUL Approved November 2016 Detached building for use as a warehouse with office and sales space. SDNP/13/03019/FUL Approved July 2020 Attached single story extension to side of Unit 1.

5. The Proposal & Design:

Building number 2 has reached the end of its useful life and is to be replaced. The building is old and decrepit. It has an environmentally unfriendly asbestos pitched roof, a very poor energy rating with no thermal insulation, no sound insulation and sub-standard sanitation. Various businesses have tried to adapt the building to their requirements over the years but with compromise and little success, resulting in unpleasant surroundings in which to work. It is proposed to demolish building number 2 and remove the two temporary container storage sheds at the rear. It is envisaged that the brick and concrete block demolition rubble will be re-used on site minimising lorry movements; however the asbestos roofing will be removed from site by a specialist contractor. The proposed new building will be sited mainly over the footprint of the to be demolished building with parking and turning space to the front. This siting, between buildings number 1 and number 3 result in the proposal being mostly hidden from view from the south and north, thereby not encroaching on the visual amenity of SDNP. The character of the whole development has been carefully considered in designing the proposal. The ridge line will face east/west to match the other buildings and reduce any unlikely bulk visual impact from the A325 and Alice Holt Forest. The height of the ridge has been kept to a minimum and in keeping with the existing, being determined by a projection of a line over the ridges of the existing buildings. All the entrance doors and windows will face away from the built-up area to the west, minimalizing light and noise disturbance. To aid the prevention of light pollution, there will be no windows on the west, north or south elevations. The doors on these elevations shown on the drawings are unglazed emergency fire escape doors.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 7 GU10 4LP

The new building will be constructed with a shallow pitched steel portal framework clad with a plastic-coated trapezoidal profiled steel skin, double lined and fully insulated. The cladding will be designed and specified by the building manufacturer to exceed the current requirement of the Building Regulations in regard to fire protection, spread of flame and energy conservation. The external cladding will be dark green to match with the other units on site as well as to harmonise with the surrounding rural setting. The building will be split into two, divided by a fire proof concrete block wall running east west and fire stopped along the ridge. Solar pv panels will be fitted to the southern roof elevation. The front east elevation of each unit will comprise a 4m x 4m roller shutter door to access the main storage/work area of the building, there will be a personnel door, three windows at ground floor level and 3 windows at first floor level. Internally, a wc and reception/office with a staircase to a first-floor office. Externally, the front of the building will be for parking, vehicle access and turning, using the existing concrete and macadam surfaces to minimise excavations. The number of designated parking bays are sufficient for the occupancy of the units, however, there is additional parking available if necessary, on the access road and in the compound directly to the east. The front of building parking will have designated areas for planting – see the layout drawing. 4 proprietary cycle racks will be provided for each unit. To the west of the site, the existing hedge will be professionally pruned and fortified with additional planting to create an effective barrier. The existing problematic foul sewer that connects to the main sewer will be removed and replaced with a designed septic tank sufficient for the whole site. This has in part been achieved, approved and inspected on site by EHDC Building Control. The old sewer, which also connects to Halfway Farm was regularly blocking because of its poor condition and shallow gradient. The existing surface water drainage systems to soakaways will be utilised and upgraded where necessary.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 8 GU10 4LP

6. Energy:

The units will be subject to an energy assessment. This will be in the form of SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) Calculations. These are used to determine how energy efficient and environmentally friendly a commercial property is in line with government regulations. SBEM Calculations quantify how much heat, light and ventilation a commercial property uses in a 12month period under normal circumstances.

7. Environment:

The proposal will replace an extremely environmentally unfriendly building, not only unfriendly to the environment in terms of energy rating and noise, but also unfriendly to the people who work there. The new energy efficient building will be located on the far western boundary of the site well away from the edge of Alice Holt and will have no impact on the SSSI. The macadam access road and the existing secure and fully fenced storage compound opposite the proposal will create a natural barrier between the proposal and the forest during and after construction.

Some demolition materials will be retained on site and reused where possible. Waste and excavated materials will be kept to a minimum and removed from site by a specialist licenced contractor to the appropriate facility, whether it be recycled or tipped at a landfill site. A full audit trail for each load will be registered. As Halfway Farm is on the edge of the SDNP and the nearest waste facilities are to the north, lorry movements within SDNP will be short and minimal.

The new units will not produce any hazardous waste. General day to day waste will be to commercial wheelie bins or the appropriate container and removed by a specialist contractor.

An initial bat survey was carried out on the building to be demolished. No bats were found and the evidence does not suggest that bats had previously inhabited there. A bat survey accompanies this statement

The development will not affect any open space or unduly pollute the environment. The site is not within a known flood risk area or area of land contamination. There are no known conflicts with adjoining landowners.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 9 GU10 4LP

8. Access:

The area has good road links to the south coast and London and there is a main line railway station close-by at Bentley, connecting to London Waterloo. There are regular bus services from Bucks Horn Oak to Bordon and Farnham and the surrounding towns and villages.

With regard to access by the Fire Service, the proposal meets the requirement for vehicular access for a pump appliance – Approved Document B – Fire Safety Regulations.

9. Occupancy and Movements:

The users of units 1 and 2 PRC Mot have just gone into liquidation. Negotiations with a new tenant TVR 101 are nearing completion. TVR 101 will take over Unit 1 and half of the new building, Unit 2A. TVR 101 are a local Farnham company that specialise in sales, storage and maintenance of mainly high-end Jaguar and Lotus sports cars. It is envisaged that TVR101 will employ 5 people. The nature of this specialist business will result in substantially less vehicle movements than those previously generated by PRC who worked on all cars, vans and lorries.

The other part of the new building, Unit 2B will be used by the site owner, Martin Cashmore, for fencing material storage and to move the gate manufacturing side of the business from outside to inside. This will reduce noise and improve the manufacturing system and product quality. He expects to employ an additional 4 people.

Work times for both Units 2A and 2B will be 7.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday. 8.00am to 12 noon on Saturday. There will be no working on Sundays or Bank Holidays.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT : UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT HALFWAY FARM, DOCKENFIELD RD. BUCKS HORN OAK, 10 GU10 4LP