Maritime Walk, Ocean Village, Southampton

Paul Basham Associates assisted Ocean Village Waterfront Developments (a joint venture between Marina Developments Ltd and the Harbour Hotel Group) in the development of a luxury hotel, 84 residential apartments and restaurants/cafes scheme at Ocean Village in Southampton.

Paul Basham Associates were approached by the client to provide highways support for this major mixed-use scheme, using both our Transport Planning and Travel Planning expertise.

The site had previously been subject to a planning application for a large hotel only, and the opportunities and constraints identified by that application needed to be taken into account with this revised scheme.  

Once briefed by the client, a site visit was undertaken to identify any possible constraints, and a project team meeting was held to appreciate the development plans and timescales. At this stage, dialogue was opened with Southampton City Council Highways officers to understand the appropriate scope of assessment, who were then closely involved throughout the process. 

Working closely with the clients, architects, landscape architects, planning agents and with the City Council, a scheme was developed which provided not only landmark buildings but also incorporated a radical improvement to the public realm on land previously used for car parking.

A Transport Assessment was prepared to support the full application, with the Assessment incorporating all proposed site uses (the hotel, residential use and the retail uses). Within the Transport Assessment, careful attention was paid to each site use in turn, with separate sections of the report discussing the different traffic impact, access, parking and servicing arrangements.

Also within the Transport Assessment, each junction in the vicinity of the site (identified by Southampton City Council) was assessed in terms of it’s capacity, using the baseline and the future year scenarios in Linsig modelling software.

At this stage, a Framework Travel Plan was submitted alongside the planning application, which considered the individual needs of a wide range of site users and promoted measures to encourage sustainable travel arrangements associated with the scheme, integrating with the wider Ocean Village.

Our team was later approached by the client to provide a Full Travel Plan, which was requested as part of the Section 106 agreement. Whilst the exact end user of each of the retail uses were unknown at this stage, further detail was given in terms of measures, monitoring and enforcement and the TPC arrangements (i.e. each site use was to have a separate TPC).

A ‘Public Transport Plan’ was also requested within the Section 106, which requested details of an agreement to be made between the client and Southampton City Council to divert buses into Ocean Village, partly at the expense of the client.

Through liaison directly with the Public Transport and Operations Manager, we were able to agree that the client had made every effort to agree re-routing with the bus companies, and that the Local Authority would need to issue a tender for a bus service to the city centre and railway station.

The £27m project successfully opened for business in October 2017 and has become an important landmark attraction to Southampton, being the city’s only 5-star hotel and host to many events with great views from the destination rooftop bar. We continue to work with the Southampton Harbour Hotel, supporting the implementation of their Travel Plan and delivering sustainable development in this central Southampton location.