County Durham Plan Office Development in Durham City – Sequential Search June 2018

Contents

Region 1 Need for Land 2

2 Sequential Test 2

3 City Centre 3

4 North Road Development Site 3

5 Millburngate House 4

6 Claypath 4

7 The Sands 4

8 Edge of Centre Sites 5

9 Old Shire Hall, Old Elvet 5

10 Elvet Waterside 6

11 Aykley Heads 6

12 Conclusion 6

Office Development in Durham City Sequential Search Office Development in Durham City Sequential Search

1 Need for Land

1.1 The Employment Land Review (ELR) 2018 identifies Durham City as the County’s premier office location. This is reflective of the volume and quality of stock relative to other areas of the County. It further identifies Durham City’s ability to attract national and international office occupiers, stating that the market appeal is underpinned by factors such as the East Coast Mainline (ECML), world class university and quality of life, as well as its accessibility to the strategic road network.

1.2 Despite the attractiveness of the City, the ELR finds that Durham’s ability to attract large scale office requirements of private sector professional firms have been limited by the constraints of the historic city centre and shortage of suitable sites.

1.3 Analysis indicates the Durham City market area currently accounts for 28.5% of all office floorspace within the County. Whilst implied demand indicates a need for up to 11ha of office development, assuming that Durham City is to maintain a proportionate share of office space, this would imply 18.5ha of land for office development in Durham City.

1.4 Further analysis within the ELR identifies that vacancy rates of the existing office stock within the city centre are low and shows much stronger demand relative to supply.

2 Sequential Test

2.1 The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) recognises that planning policies should promote competitive town centre environments. In doing so it provides a definition of main town centre uses. As well as retail and leisure uses, it also identifies offices as being a defined town centre use.

2.2 The NPPF states that suitable sites should be allocated to meet the scale and type of office development needed within town centres. Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are advised to undertake an assessment of the need to expand town centres to ensure a sufficient supply of suitable sites. Further to this it states that LPAs should allocate appropriate edge of centre sites for main town centre uses that are well connected to the town centre where suitable and viable town centre sites are not available.

2.3 The PPG (Planning Practice Guide) states that in plan-making, the sequential approach requires a thorough assessment of the suitability, viability and availability of locations for main town centre uses. It requires explained reasoning if more central opportunities to locate main town centre uses are rejected.

2.4 It goes on to state that it may not be possible to accommodate all forecast needs in a town centre recognising that there may be physical or other constraints which make it inappropriate to so. In such circumstances LPAs should plan positively to identify the most alternative strategy for meeting the need for such main town centre uses.

2.5 Given the advice within the NPPF it is therefore necessary to consider the capacity of the city centre in the first instance to meet the requirements for offices in Durham City. It is noted that within the Durham City market, land exists at locations such as Meadowfield Industrial Estate, however a considerable amount of the estate would need to come forward for office development.

2.6 Given the nature of uses on Meadowfield Industrial Estate this is not a likely or appropriate strategy. Therefore the availability of more city centre and edge of centre locations will be critical in facilitating office demand. This is also consistent with the market advice detailed within the Employment Land Review that emphasises the market strengths of more central sites. It is also noted that Meadowfield Industrial Estate would constitute an out of centre location. Other business parks/industrial

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locations within the Durham City market (Abbey Woods) also have land that is potentially available but again would not represent sites that would be as attractive to the market and would also not be sequentially preferable.

3 City Centre

3.1 The lack of existing office premises within central locations is a legacy of historical constraints of developing within the city centre and the proximity of the World Heritage Site. In accordance with the NPPF it is however necessary to consider the potential of city centre sites to meet office need within the city.

3.2 The following sites within the defined city centre have been identified:

North Road, redevelopment site Millburngate House 13-17 Claypath The Sands

4 North Road Development Site

4.1 North Road is a predominantly commercial street which links to the city’s central core via Framwellgate Bridge. The site is approximately 2ha and is located within the defined city centre boundaries. The area encompasses the existing bus station, links to the rail station and retail frontage on either side of the road.

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4.2 The site has been identified by the Council for redevelopment which will see the re-configuration of the existing road layout to deliver a new bus station. This has the potential to enhance the public realm, transport and retail environment and provide an opportunity to deliver more retail frontage on the site of current bus station in this area of the city centre.

4.3 Given the above, whilst the site presents a development opportunity, it is considered more appropriate to deliver retail or leisure developments within this traditional retail location.

5 Millburngate House

5.1 This site is located outside the city centre boundaries defined within the City of Durham Local Plan but within the amended boundaries as proposed within the Retail Study and Town Centre Study 2009 (reiterated in more recent updates to this study). For the purposes of this work, the site has therefore been considered ‘in-centre’. The site lies adjacent to the , the Freemans Reach development is located on the opposite side of the river.

5.2 The site covers an area of 2.3ha and previously included the offices of the HM Passport Office and National Savings and Investment (NS&I). Following relocation of these two occupiers to Freemans Reach the Council have been minded to approve (November 2016) a mixed use scheme incorporating leisure (use classes D1, D2), retail (use class A1), financial and professional services (use class A2), food and drink (use classes A3, A4, A5), offices (use class B1a) and 291 residential units (use class C3). The proposals will provide up to 10,628sqm of B1a floorspace.

5.3 Whilst this scheme will go some way to providing some modern in-centre office premises, it is not sufficient to deliver the quantum of floorspace to meet the overall level of development identified within the ELR or that which can be delivered on the Aykley Heads site. In addition the scheme will deliver wider benefits of a mixed use development delivering a range of town centre uses.

6 Claypath

6.1 The site is located on the north side of Claypath, one of the historic commercial streets in Durham City. It lies north east of the road running to Milburngate Bridge. The historic market place is located immediately to the south of the site. Adjacent to the site is Millennium Square which provides are range of leisure uses.

6.2 The site which incorporates 17 Claypath as well as Units 2-5 of Millennium Place and The Tower provides a commercial opportunity in the heart at the city which may be suitable to range of town centre uses.

6.3 Given the location of the site, it is more likely to be suited to a mixed use development that can deliver a range of town centre uses. Whilst this may incorporate a degree of office floorspace, this is unlikely to be of a quantum to meet the requirements for offices over the Plan period.

7 The Sands

7.1 The site of approximately 1.5ha is located north of the new office development at Freeman’s Reach and opposite the Freeman’s Quay leisure centre, it is currently in operation as a car park. As with Milburngate House the site is located outside the city centre boundaries defined within the City of Durham Local Plan but within the amended boundaries as proposed within the Retail and Town Centre Study 2009.

7.2 As part of the Council’s decision to develop a Strategic Employment Site at Aykley Heads, Cabinet has agreed to relocate County Hall to a smaller, more efficient building in Durham city centre. As part of this process, the Council will re-provide the Sands parking spaces.

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7.3 Whilst the site will provide office accommodation, this will be for use by Durham County Council. In addition the site clearly will only be able to accommodate a small proportion of the office floorspace that can be delivered on the Aykley Heads site.

8 Edge of Centre Sites

8.1 The lack suitable city centre sites within Durham City therefore requires the search to be extended outwith the boundaries of city centre. This is in accordance with the NPPF as detailed in para 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 of this report. The NPPF identifies that for office development edge of centre sites includes locations outside the town centre but within 500 metres of a public transport interchange.

8.2 For the purposes of this study, the following edge of centre sites have been recognised:

Old Shire Hall, Old Elvet Elvet Waterside Aykley Heads

9 Old Shire Hall, Old Elvet

9.1 Old Shire Hall is located immediately east of the defined town centre boundary. It is situated within the conservation area and is a Grade II listed building and could therefore be considered for conversion. The building was used as the head- quarters of Durham County Council until more recently being occupied by . It was sold to the HCA and has not been in use until recently.

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9.2 The site currently benefits from an existing planning permission for a change of use and conversion to a 43 bedroom hotel and 29 room aparthotel, restaurant and bar, leisure club and spa. This has now been developed and opened in Spring 2018. It therefore cannot be considered available for development.

10 Elvet Waterside

10.1 The site constitutes an infill site of 1.4ha within the Elvet area of Durham City. Specifically it consists of a vacant swimming pool situated immediately south of the river, within walking distance of the city centre. The former baths building was last used as public swimming pool in 2008, since this time, the building has been vacant with adjacent land being used as car parking for the university.

10.2 The site is located within the conservation area and within floodzones 3a and 3b. The site has been subject to previous developer interest including an application for mixed use scheme incorporating offices, residential and restaurant uses. This application was however withdrawn following concerns raised by Heritage.

10.3 The site now forms part of the Durham University Masterplan with the view to the site being used as a teaching hub. Whilst assessment of whether the constraints of the site can be overcome is not considered within this sequential assessment, the site is not available to come forward for office development. In addition it is considered that the site is not of a sufficient size to deliver the office floorspace required.

11 Aykley Heads

11.1 The Aykley Heads site in its entirety covers an area of over 90ha. It is situated immediately north of the city centre with good links to the centre as well as the Durham Railway Station and the East Coast Mainline (southern extent within 500m). There are currently a number office uses situated on the site including Durham Police HQ, Atom Bank, North East Chamber of Commerce, Sport England, Durham County Council as well as a number of smaller businesses located within Salvus House.

11.2 An understanding of the site has identified that there is just under 3.5ha of undeveloped land available for development. This includes the former Trinity School and land adjacent to the new police HQ and the former bowling greens. In addition the Council’s recent announcement to vacate the County Hall site could see a further 5.6ha opened up for development at the front of the site following demolition. Consideration may also be given to a small release from the Green Belt (County Hall car park) which will give further opportunities for office development.

12 Conclusion

12.1 A consideration of potential locations for new office development within the City has identified that there are limited opportunities within in-centre locations. It has been necessary to consider these locations in the first instance in order to satisfy the requirements of the sequential test in the NPPF. None of the locations are of a size to meet projected need in the city even if each of the sites were disaggregated, in addition there are doubts over their availability and suitability. The lack of suitable in-centre sites has therefore required a broadening of the search to edge of centre locations. Again some smaller sites have been identified but these have been dismissed due to their availability and limited capacity to meet the identified need.

12.2 The wider Aykley Heads site already houses a number of office based businesses and has existing and future available land. The site is also well linked to the city centre and benefits from significant locational advantages. Therefore in accordance with the NPPF, it has been demonstrated that Aykley Heads is the most sequentially preferable site to provide a location for new office development in the city that will meet the needs identified within the ELR.

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