Paul Basham Associates have a wealth of experience working on student accommodation schemes within Southampton and were approached by Savills on behalf of Earl Estates to help to develop a former bank into 68 student accommodation units and a retail store.
The Brief
The site had received broadly positive pre-application feedback for the proposed scheme, however needed highways input to support its car free nature. A section of public highway was required to be 'stopped up' and this also formed part of our brief due to the fundamental impact on development footprint.
Our Approach
Working closely with the architect and wider team, we were able to provide input into the development of the site layout and ensure that early pre-application comments were addressed.
A Transport Statement was produced to support the application, which provided details of the site’s accessibility and existing local infrastructure which would be available to future students as well as evidence to support the 'car free' nature of the scheme including a ‘Student Intake Management Plan’ in which students would be allocated time slots at the start and end of term for short-stay on-street parking on High Street. The Transport Statement also outlined the delivery and servicing strategy for the site (which was further detailed in the Waste Management and Servicing Plan), and detailed the proposed cycle parking arrangements with reference to other recently consented schemes in the vicinity of the site.
A Travel Plan was also prepared to support the application, focusing mainly on future students. Whilst the development is 'car free', the Travel Plan was requested at the pre-application stage to ensure that all opportunities to encourage sustainable travel were sufficiently advertised each year to students and any potential visitors.
The stopping up order (Section 247) which was required prior to commencement of the development was also handled by the team, who first produced a drawing of the order’s requirements to gain 'in principle' approval from the local highway authority. Once this was achieved, we liaised with the Department for Transport throughout the process and handled any queries directly, including the erection of the order outside the site.
The Result
Following planning approval and successful completion of the stopping up order, the development has been completed and ground floor retail unit occupied by Heavenly Desserts. If ever there was a reason to revisit a site...