Tag Archives: Design

Good by Design – The view of the Horsham Society – so what is ours?

Local Plan, Planning

‘Good by Design’ is the Horsham Society’s views on what constitutes good design in Horsham. It combines and expands content from the Horsham Town Design Statement adopted by Horsham District Council in December 2008 and from the Design Protocol of Chichester District Council, December 2013. Click here to view their document.

The notes are intended as guidance as to what the Horsham Society is looking for and are  intended as starting point and the employment of judgement and evaluation are very much matters for the observers themselves.

So what are our views on such matters for Chichester?

The Chichester Society, through its Executive Committee, recently made known its views on the Chichester District Council’s Local Plan Review (the Review is available here).

In particular in relation to ‘ Section S20 – Design’ (reproduced below from the Review)  ‘ChiSoc welcomed this additional policy and supported its purpose in the Plan

Policy S20: Design

All proposals for new development will be required to be of high quality design that:

  1. responds positively to the site and its surroundings, cultural diversity and history, conserves and enhances historic character and reinforces local identity or establishes a distinct identity whilst not preventing innovative responses to context;
  2. creates a distinctive sense of place through high quality townscape and landscaping that physically and visually integrates with its surroundings;
  3. provides a clear and permeable structure of streets, routes and spaces that are legible and easy to navigate through because of the use of street typology, views, landmarks, public art and focal points;
  4. is well connected to provide safe and convenient ease of movement by all users, prioritising pedestrian and cycle movements both within the scheme and neighbouring areas and ensuring that the needs of vehicular traffic does not dominate at the expense of other modes of transport, or undermine the resulting quality of places;
  5. incorporates and/or links to high quality Green Infrastructure and landscaping to enhance biodiversity and meet recreational needs, including public rights of way
  6. is built to last, functions well and is flexible to changing requirements of occupants and other circumstances;
  7. addresses the needs of all in society by incorporating mixed uses and facilities as appropriate with good access to public transport and a wide range of house types and tenures
  8. is visually attractive and respects and where possible enhances the character of the surrounding area in terms of its scale, height, density, layout, massing, type, details, materials,
  9. provides a high standard of amenity for existing and future neighbours, occupiers and users of the development;
  10. creates safe communities and reduces the likelihood and fear of crime;
  11. secures a high quality public realm with well managed and maintained public areas that are overlooked to promote greater community safety, with clearly defined private spaces;
  12. ensures a sufficient level of well-integrated car and bicycle parking and external storage;
  13. is sustainable and resilient to climate change by taking into account landform, layout, building orientation, massing and landscaping to minimise energy consumption and mitigate water run-off and flood risks.
Now it’s your turn!

We would welcome your views on such design issues whether on major developments or ones that affect a particular locality. You may do so via our contact page. However before doing so you might like to consult the full Local Plan Review here

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Design Protocol – An approach to achieving high quality design in developments

Planning,

With housing developments ongoing and likely to accelerate it is timely to consider the Council’s approach to housing design.

The Chichester Design Protocol was published in 2013 and sets out the Council’s approach to making our District more successful through quality design. It is intended to underpin their commitment to achieving sustainable development. The protocol sets out how the Council will ensure that the design of buildings, places, spaces and the networks that make up our towns and city and rural areas, work for all of us, both now and in the future.

The Chichester Society noted at the time that CDC’s priority objective for more homes needs to be balanced by insisting on design quality and landscaping.

To this the Council responded that “policies in the adopted Local Plan seek to secure a high standard of design and layout in new development and aim to ensure that development respects the character of its surroundings. Development at the strategic development locations (e.g. West of Chichester) is also subject to a Planning ‘Concept Statement’ prepared by Council officers and approved by the Council which sets out a clear statement of design guidance and principles that informed the preparation of masterplans by the developers to ensure that a coordinated approach is taken to the development and associated infrastructure and in subsequent applications for outline and detailed planning permission. The planning system allows applicants to apply for outline planning permission to establish the quantum and principles of development prior to developing more detailed plans of the scheme. Subsequent applications for reserved matters approval are subject to the Council’s usual public notification and consultation procedures and the same referral criteria to the Planning Committee as for outline applications under the Council’s constitution also apply. There is, therefore, ample opportunity for the public to be engaged in the planning process for such applications”.

The full document can be read here.

It is not known if the Council plans to update this document.

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