FELMERSHAM & RADWELL Design Codes March 2020 Quality information Project role Name Position Action summary Signature Date Qualifying body Trevor Roff Parish Clerk Review Trevor Roff 31-01-2020 Researcher Blerta Dino Urban Designer Research, site Blerta Dino 18-02-2020 visit, drawings Researcher Hoorieh Morshedi Urban Designer Research, site Hoorieh Morshedi 18-02-2020 visit, drawings Director / QA Ben Castell Director Revision and Ben Castell 18-02-2020 approval of Final Report This document has been prepared by AECOM Limited (“AECOM”) in accordance with its contract with Locality (the “Client”) and in accordance with generally accepted consultancy principles, the budget for fees and the terms of reference agreed between AECOM and the Client. Any information provided by third parties and referred to herein has not been checked or verified by AECOM, unless otherwise expressly stated in the document. AECOM shall have no liability to any third party that makes use of or relies upon this document. Contents 1. Introduction 6 1.1. Background 6 1.2. Purpose of this document 6 1.3. Preparing the Design Codes 6 2. Local Character Analysis 10 2.1. Introduction 10 2.2. Local Character Analysis 12 2.2.1. Conservation area 14 2.2.2. Land use and density 14 3. Design Codes 18 3.1. Introduction 18 3.2. Placemaking and design codes 18 3.2.1. Placemaking 18 3.2.2. Parking and servicing 24 3.2.3. Sustainability 27 3.2.4. Building forms and materials 30 3.2.5. New streets 41 3.3. General questions to ask and issues to consider when presented with a development proposal 42 4. Delivery 47 Introduction 01 FELMERSHAM AND RADWELL | Neighbourhood Plan Design Codes 1. Introduction 1.1. Background 1.3. Preparing the Design Codes Through the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local The following steps were undertaken to produce this Government’s Neighbourhood Planning Programme led by document: Locality, AECOM was commissioned to provide design support • Initial meeting between AECOM and the Felmersham and to the Felmersham and Radwell Neighbourhood Planning Radwell Neighbourhood Planning Group and joint site visit; Group. The support is intended to provide design codes based on the character and local qualities of the two villages. • Review of existing baseline documents; • Urban design analysis; and 1.2. Purpose of this document • Preparation of final Design Codes document. This document is an annex to the Neighbourhood Plan. Its Figure 1: Two-storey family housing along Pavenham Road. purpose is to add depth and illustration to the Plan’s policies on design and growth, offering guidance on the community’s expectations. Felmersham and Radwell, is about to undergo a period of small- scale growth to meet the needs of the community and help sustain amenities and it is important to existing and future residents that the quality of development is widely appreciated to be high. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF; 2018, paragraph 125) states that “neighbourhood plans can play an important role in identifying the special qualities of each area and explaining how this should be reflected in development”; this document does that for Felmersham and Radwell. Figure 2: A view to St. Mary’s Church. Figure 3: Two and half storey building overlooking to the street. 6 AECOM FELMERSHAM AND RADWELL | Neighbourhood Plan Design Codes To Wellingborough To Rushden RISELEY PODINGTON West Wood Great Hayes Wood HINWICK Riseley Road A6 Dungee Wood SHARNBROOK Keysoe Road Dungee Road Odell Great Wood To St Neots Park Wood Odell Road THURLEIGH Thurleigh Road Thurleigh Mill Hill ODELL FELMERSHAM RADWELL HARROLD A6 Robins Fally CHELLINGTON MILTON ERNEST CARLTON Pavenham Road PAVENHAM Mill Road KEY B660 Felmersham and Radwell Neighbourhood Plan Area Woodland Brown’s Wood Built up area River Great Ouse Roads Railway River To Bedford 0 0.5 m 1 KM and London Figure 4: The Map showing the Neighbourhood Plan Area in the context. AECOM 7 Local Character Analysis 02 FELMERSHAM AND RADWELL | Neighbourhood Plan Design Codes 2. Local Character Analysis 2.1. Introduction The Bedfordshire parish of Felmersham and Radwell is located Radwell, Sharnbrook, Odell, Carlton, Pavenham and Milton within Bedford Borough and is 60 miles north of London Ernest, all of which are adjacent to the meandering river. Close and 7 miles Northwest of Bedford. The winding river Great to the parish is the Felmersham Nature Reserve, formed Ouse forms the parish boundary to the north and east. The following gravel extraction in the World War II and now managed source of the Great Ouse is about 5 miles from Brackley in by the Wildlife Trust. Northamptonshire and it travels about 150 miles to the sea at King’s Lynn. Access to the parish is provided by an early 19th Based on a 2011 census, the population of the parish was 748. century bridge to the north and a mid 18th century bridge to the south. Neighbouring villages to Felmersham and Radwell are Sharnbrook and Odell to the north, Bletsoe to the east, Milton Ernest and Pavenham to the south and Carlton to the west. Apart from the dominant river, Felmersham has various Figure 5: The Sun Public House, the only pub in Felmersham, situated on features ranging from traditional limestone buildings and walls, Grange Road. green open spaces and attractive countryside. Felmersham has a few facilities such as the 13th century St Mary’s church, Pinchmill Primary School, a Village Hall, an area with play equipment within a small playing field, the Sun Public House and the Margaret Alleway Memorial Garden next to a public slipway providing access to the river. The hamlet of Radwell is at the eastern end of the parish of Felmersham and has a prominent village green surrounded by small properties, some of which are thatched. The parish of Felmersham lies within the West Anglian Plain Natural Area, a flat or gently rolling wold landscape with several ancient woodlands. Within the parish it is characterised by grass fields, lakes from gravel extraction and tracts of intensively-managed arable land bounded by hedgerows. There are views over the parish and upper Great Ouse Valley from the North Bedfordshire Wolds and there are important green buffer zones between the neighbouring villages of Figure 6: St. Mary’s Church, 13th Century, grade I listed building situated Figure 7: Two-storey stone detached family house, formerly a public house on The High Road in Felmersham. on Church End. 10 AECOM FELMERSHAM AND RADWELL | Neighbourhood Plan Design Codes Figure 8: Two-storey and a half semi-detached houses with slate roof and Figure 9: Terraced houses along Pavenham Road. Figure 11: One storey and half family housing with short stone wall as dormers on Grange Road. boundary treatment. Figure 10: A Cul-de-sac development on Marriotts Close with a view to St. Mary’s church. Figure 12: Rendered house on Grange Road. AECOM 11 FELMERSHAM AND RADWELL | Neighbourhood Plan Design Codes 2.2. Local Character Analysis Causeway FELMERSHAM Church End The High Road is the village’s main through road from Radwell and Sharnbrook/Odell. Hunts Lane and Grange Road complete a village loop. Pavenham Road off Grange Road is a through route to Pavenham and beyond. Hunts Lane leads to Carlton Road and accesses villages to the Hunts Lane STREETS AND west. Radwell Road PUBLIC REALM There is neither a good level of walkability nor connectivity which promotes the use of private P a v e vehicles. Additionally, pavement width is poor. Public transport consists of a bus service which is n h a m well used by locals. Public green spaces can be found along the spine of the village. R o KEY a d There is a good mix of housing typologies in Felmersham and Radwell. The most common house Detached PATTERN AND typologies are detached and semi-detached, followed by terraced dwellings. Semi-detached Terraced 0 50 200 m LAYOUT OF The orientation of buildings varies with most of the buildings fronting the street and fewer of BUILDINGS them addressing the street with the end gable. The use of limestone (limestone rubble) is a distinctive feature of the area. Town Lot Lane Hunts Lane Building heights typically vary between one and two storeys. Typically the roofline is either BUILDING gabled or intersecting gabled roof. Other less frequently used types of roof present in the village HEIGHTS AND include hipped, shed roofs, flat roofs, and mansard roofs. Many buildings have chimneys, and on Grange Road ROOFLINE Causeway the roofs gabled and shed dormers are frequently present. There are different approaches to car parking within the village. A characteristic of the village is garage parking or on-plot parking. It is common for garages to have two parking spaces. Pavenham Road CAR PARKING Other parking modes include: parking in the front garden, parking at the side of the house and also parking on the street. There is a lack of adequate off-road parking near the Village Hall and Church End school. Radwell Road Felmersham is surrounded by vast open spaces with long views towards the countryside. Within OPEN SPACES & the village boundaries there is a good proportion of open spaces and pocket parks. They are LANDSCAPE well kept and have good accessibility from other parts of the village. Figure 13: Felmersham townplan. 12 AECOM FELMERSHAM AND RADWELL | Neighbourhood Plan Design Codes RADWELL Moor End Lane Radwell is a compact hamlet towards the east of the parish. Notable features include the former Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Moor End Road, built in 1807, now a private residence, and the fishing and wildfowl habitat known as Radwell Lakes. There is a former riding stables in Moor End STREETS AND Road and operational stables at Hall Farm next to the bridge.