Design for Life & Design Quality in North Northamptonshire Amy Burbidge North Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit & Hayley Blundell East Northamptonshire District Council The North Northants Context • 52,000 homes & 44,000 jobs in 20 years to 2021 • Extra 100,000 population 2001 and 2021 • Design policies in the Core Strategy set the framework Joint Working • JPU/ Joint Committee Kettering prepared Core Strategy • District DPDs & Wellingborough development control Corby • Step change in quality but CABE’s East Midlands Housing Audit identified problems. East • Design Programme started Northants 2007, partnership between CABE, Arts Council and JPU Design Surgeries 4 LPAs, limited people Pre-application focus Multi-disciplinary development team meeting(Highways, UD, Police, Landscape, Planning Officer) Negotiation round the table. Familiar team, informal style, applicants involved CLG Site Delivery Funding enabled Architecture Centre’s Design Review Panel members to join the surgeries. St Modwen Retail scheme, London Road, Wellingborough Initial submission Pre-app discussions through Design Surgeries secured improvement from basic layout to include: 1. Ped/cycle routes to and through the site to access stores and restaurant inc better materials for footways 2. Increased landscaping, biodiversity measures and swales/rain gardens around and within carpark 3. New buildings arranged to have front doors towards the street, rather than solely inwards towards carpark Networks - Design Officers Group, shared training Annual design calendar online DOG – meet every 8 weeks, shared knowledge and workload, presentations – fire, Police, dark skies campaign Shared training – Building in Context, Manual for Streets – easier to attract external presentations when targeting 4 LPAs through 1 organization. Site Visit Club – officers and cllrs. In North Northants and around. Urban Extensions and Design Codes 7 urban extensions – Design Codes adopted or planned Avoid aspirational documents, aim for a set of rules Regulating plan useful Think landscape! SUDS and use Allowing for variety Monitoring Design Quality in the Annual Monitoring Report using Building for Life 12 • 10+ units • Site visit, photos, parking survey • Photo document published of good and bad, based on BfL headings Lessons Leant from Design Surgeries – document published 2014 focusing on common pitfalls • Use DAS – evidence of thought process • Avoid red line blindness • Think landscape • Pedestrians first • Parking • Front doors at the front • Local design for local places – context • Bins! Success? BfL12 2014 reviews and others • Design Coded schemes markedly better than the average Design coded scheme helping sales – Barratt Homes at Priors Hall Polwell Lane, Kettering - Bovis General trends Observations: BfL monitoring since 2008 • Fewer parking courts demonstrates steady • Buildings facing streets and turning corners improvement in overall design better quality, but there is still a way • Passive surveillance understood to go……….. Still mixed stories on sites But forgot to do it on House turns corner inside the site corner well at site entrance in Rushden St Marys Road, Kettering Red line blindness - permeability • Identification of route connections on plan is now more consistent, but delivery is not…… Thurston drive image of overgrown connecting footpath here! quality also needs to become more consistent……. Landscape and open space • SUDS Public open space? Landscaping and trees • Street trees • Made positive strides in getting existing trees retained • Struggling to get new trees put into streets Standard streets? Anywhere places? • Wrong typology for place – narrow plot, terraced form, landscape • Context Parking – enough, but wrong place Insert Eastfield road, Wborough image of front parking court Plus rear cut out Never close enough for some!!! Bins • Terraces and bins • Higham rear court Ginnells Place Shaping Approach in the JCS CABE – strUD project. Place shaping workshops Connectivity and character key to success Urban Structure Study – Route structure analysis Place Shaping Principles – general and site specific Emerging Place Shaping SPD 3. Ensure 1. Create adaptable, diverse Connected places and flexible places 2. Make safe and Create distinctive, pleasant streets local character and spaces 5. Ensure quality of life and safer healthier communiities Sustained battle! .