Wiltshire Council Planning Consultation Response LANDSCAPE Officer name: Mark Goodwin CMLI (Landscape Architect) Landscape & Design Team, Economic Development & Planning, WiltshireCouncil Date: 27.05.2016 Application No: 15/12351/OUT Proposal: Outline Permission for up to 700 Dwellings, Including 4.5ha Employment Space and Primary School. Up to 10ha New Public Open Space, Landscaping, Stormwater / Drainage Works, Substation and Associated Works. Access Using Parsonage Way, Darcy Close and from Cocklebury Lane (for Cycling and Pedestrian Only). Site Address: Land at Rawlings Farm, Cocklebury Lane, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 3LR Case Officer: Mark Staincliffe Matters Considered: Landscape and Visual effects and impacts /Landscape Design Issues: Recommendation: No Comment Support Support subject to conditions (please set out below) x Object (for reasons set out below) No objections Summary A landscape objection is raised for this application due to the resulting harm generated from locating large scale mixed use urban development uses outside the existing settlement framework boundary on prominent farmland slopes overlooking the expansive River Avon valley floor / floodplain. This proposed development will adversely impact on the existing remote, tranquil, rural qualities of outlying village settlements and their countryside settings. The proposed new development will breach the heavily wooded disused railway line/cycleway which currently serves as an important and effective urban containment and screening transition with adjoining and exposed countryside along the town’s eastern and northern edges. The retention of existing field boundary hedgerows and proposed new supplementary tree planting within the development proposal is welcomed, but is unlikely to be able to fully mitigate the adverse resulting landscape and visual effects arising from development of this naturein the longer term. This is due to the elevated sloping nature of the site, and the scale, density and form of the proposed urban development parameters in combination with the inadequacy of the proposed structural planting which will permanently weaken the existing wooded character of the town’s current settlement edge. The proposed 2.5 and 3 storey residential dwellings, alongside large care home buildings and the massing of likely employment buildings will be viewed as a new highly visible, uncharacteristic settlement extension and will represent a highly visible change for outlying countryside receptors that currently share inter-visibility with the existing green pastoral farmland slopes within the application site. During early pre-application meetings, I recommended that if this site were to be included as a strategic development site allocation within the emerging Chippenham Development Plan Document then significant areas of new tree planting would be required along the sites mid slope contourin combination with new filtering tree planting located within the riverside park land along the edge of proposed new built development edge, and some additional strategically placed riparian tree planting along the River Avon. This is still considered necessary to help retain the existing filtering wooded character of the town’s eastern transition with countryside to the east, in order to help break up and filter views of urban development block massing, and to help integrate a more characteristic urban extension on this side of Chippenham over the longer term. I also advised that large buildings such as care homes or employment uses would be difficult to accommodate sympathetically on this sloping site. It is also clear that additional structured planting needs to be provided along the northern boundary of the site to better visually contain the proposed new development from Peckingell, and to strengthen the wooded character of the town’s settlement edge. The proposed new road bridge crossing the Great Western Railway (15/11886/FUL) to link this site (Strategic Area B) with Parsonage Way Industrial Estate, to the west, requires the removal of some mature trees from along the top of the railway cutting along the upper western edge of the site, and some necessary localised re-profiling of the existing bund that these trees are growing on. These trees currently serve to screen and filter local and wider views from countryside receptors to existing industrial uses and buildings at Parsonage Way Industrial Estate from wider countryside. The removal of this valued screening vegetation and removal of associated bunds will result in the creation of a new viewing corridor into Parsonage Way Industrial Estate for receptors opposite from the east, increasing the visual prominence of the large existing industrial buildings, and highway lighting located within the Parsonage Way Industrial Estate and a weakening of existing urban containment. The mixed use urban development of this ‘Rawlings Farm’ site (Strategic Area B) in combination with mixed use urban development on land to the north of the cycleway within ‘Land East of Chippenham’ (Strategic Area C) and also the application for a new road bridge crossing the railway (15/11886/FUL) are likely to generate cumulative landscape and visual impacts. The cumulative harm is likely to arise from the increased combined magnitude and scale of urbanising change to the existing rural, tranquil character of the countryside to the east of Chippenham, which will cumulatively undermine the existing tranquil isolated character of the River Avon and Marden floodplain, the setting and character of the outlying village settlement of Tytherton Lucas, rural public rights of way to the east of Chippenham and the characteristic well wooded settlement edge along the town’s eastern settlement edge. Draft Policy CH2 Clearly requires any new urban development proposal within strategic Area B to include mitigating structural planting, and lower residential development density for the purpose of maintaining an effective wooded filtering and screening transition with countryside. This requirement is necessary to ensure potential urban extensions to the east of the town maintain and strengthen existing character and avoid prominent new urban expansions on visible slopes, which is highlighted as a particular issue for the future expansion of Chippenham in the published local landscape character assessments. I suggest the currently proposed development parameters including the landscape strategy need to be revised to address landscape concerns highlighted. Background & Context The proposed development site lie’s in countryside beyond the town’s existing eastern limits of development (settlement boundary). The site is bordered along its eastern edge by the River Avon and along its western edge by the Great Western Railway. The sites southern boundary is largely enclosed by the heavily wooded and now disused local GWR (Chippenham to Calne) Branch line railway, separating the site from the town. The site comprises approx. 50.75 hectares of sloping pastoral agricultural land (largely Grade 2 in the ALC) located between the active Great Western Railway and the River Avon. The site falls from the railway at approx 65m AOD in the west to the river Avon in the east at approx. 45m AOD and is largely contained within the current landholding associated with Rawlings Green Farm. The site comprises a 2 number of small and medium sized fields enclosed by field hedgerows, with occasional hedgerow trees. In the northern part of the application site a distinctive dry valley is evident, which once contained a small tributary watercourse of the River Avon. This watercourse is believed to have been diverted during the construction of the Railway. A tall thinning hedgerow borders the northern boundary of the site, providing some filtering of the site from Peckingell, which includes grade II listed farm buildings. The proposed site lies to the east of Parsonage Way Industrial Estate, separated by the busy Great Western Railway line which is located in deep cutting (soon to be electrified) along the sites western boundary. The historic urban core of Chippenham’s town centre lies approx. 1.4km to the south of the site. To the immediate south of the site, Monkton Park housing estate occupies slightly lower land and is separated from the application site by the heavily wooded disused railway line which is now utilised as a cycleway linking Chippenham to Calne. The site is fairly isolated with the only vehicle access currently provided by Cocklebury Lane a narrow Byway (CHIP45) accessed from the north, off Maud Heath’s Causeway (B4069). Access into the site is via a bridge crossing the railway. A second controlled vehicle access into the site is also possible from Cocklebury Lane from the south, at the end of Eastern Avenue across a stone arched bridge crossing over the disused railway. This former Calne to Chippenham branch line of the Great Western Railway, now forms part of the North Wiltshire Rivers Route / National Cycle Network 403 (Sustrans Route 4) and borders the sites southern boundary. The disused railway/cycleway is in deep cutting along most of its length with the exception of a short section constructed on steep embankment (approx. 10-15metres above the river and floodplain) which elevates the route to cross the River Avon via a cycleway/footbridge (Black Bridge), which also incorporates a purpose built viewing platform for the public to enjoy the views of the River Avon corridor and associated floodplain areas. East of the river, the cycleway continues on embankment