Securing an outline consent with the landowners initially, and then supporting Bellway Homes with their subsequent reserved matters application, Phase 2 application and the Section 278 works, Paul Basham Associates delivered a consistency in service to our clients across transport planning and civil engineering disciplines.
The Brief
Since its origins as a Second World War camp, the Merryfield Park site had evolved and diversified into a variety of land use purposes and whilst subject to a number of Certificate of Lawful Use consents, the site never had planning consent for the entire use. As such, and with a complex assortment of operations from paintball to driver training facilities and various workshops and commercial uses, a key task for Paul Basham Associates was to establish to the satisfaction of the local highway authority a robust estimation of the traffic-generating potential of the site, which would in turn allow a robust comparison with that of the proposed 80 dwellings, 1500sqm of B1 use, site museum and retained ad-hoc uses.
Our Approach
Site accessibility was a key consideration, and whilst the potential for pedestrian access to the nearby village centre existed via a Public Right of Way, we completed challenging design work for a pedestrian link on Derritt Lane to ensure access by foot to the village of Bransgore was available.
We also successfully negotiated that no highways contributions could be reasonably sought by the Council, given the reduction in overall people movements generated by the proposed development relative to the existing uses, and the wider benefits provided by the introduction of the footway on Derritt Lane.
The Result
Following consent for the original scheme, the site was purchased by Bellway Homes, who instructed us to support both their Section 278 submission for the footway works (including an OWC application along a length of existing ditch) and priority build out, and a second phase application for a further 22 homes between the original site and Bransgore Village.
Consistency within the consultant team proved invaluable, with the same in-house engineers taking forward those designs drawn up at the application stage through to Section 278 approval.