Cornwall Design Review Panel Meeting:
Thursday 5th April 2012
Site Address: Land at Barbican Road, East Looe
Proposal: Hybrid Planning Application: Full planning application proposed for Tesco Supermarket 2350sqm (25000sq ft) with 230 car parking spaces; Petrol Filling Station and recycling centre; and provision of 30 affordable homes (mixed sizes and tenure); with associated highway infrastructure (on and off site) and landscaping. Outline planning application for provision of land community uses being currently proposed as provision of skate board park; new clubhouse for football club and landscaping.
Design Team in attendance:
Mark Scoot – Amethyst Planning Consultants
John Macguire – Architect (Supermarket and associated infrastructure) Jon Berry – Traffic and Transport
Alistair – Landscape Consultant
Greg Lean – Architect (Affordable Housing and associated infrastructure)
Cornwall Design Review Panel in attendance:
The Cornwall design review panel members who attended the meeting were as follows: Mark Pearson (Chair); Tim Kellett; Martin Mumford; Nitin Bhasin; Estelle Doughty; Peter Bartram; Stephen Kirby
Conflicts of Interest:
Peter Bartram, (RIBA representative) declared a personal interest as a local resident of East Looe, but stayed in the meeting as a contributor on the Panel.
Divisional Member was invited, but did not attend the meeting.
Thank you for your recent presentation. Please find below the comments from the Cornwall Design Review Panel. This is the formal guidance of the Panel and you should disregard any specific points made by individual panel members during the formative discussion as they may not now reflect the overall views of the Panel.
Panel Guidance
For clarity the Cornwall Design Review Panel are not considering the principle of the development but focusing on design matters for the presented scheme to assist the Design Team and Local Planning Authority.
Context
The Panel were informed that this site comprises one field located on east side of Barbican Road. The field is bordered by an enclosed reservoir / post office sorting office / industrial estate / football pitch to the south west; private dwelling to the north and Looe Secondary School to the west of Barbican Road.
Landscape Character
Thursday 5th April 2012
Site Address: Land at Barbican Road, East Looe
Proposal: Hybrid Planning Application: Full planning application proposed for Tesco Supermarket 2350sqm (25000sq ft) with 230 car parking spaces; Petrol Filling Station and recycling centre; and provision of 30 affordable homes (mixed sizes and tenure); with associated highway infrastructure (on and off site) and landscaping. Outline planning application for provision of land community uses being currently proposed as provision of skate board park; new clubhouse for football club and landscaping.
Design Team in attendance:
Mark Scoot – Amethyst Planning Consultants
John Macguire – Architect (Supermarket and associated infrastructure) Jon Berry – Traffic and Transport
Alistair – Landscape Consultant
Greg Lean – Architect (Affordable Housing and associated infrastructure)
Cornwall Design Review Panel in attendance:
The Cornwall design review panel members who attended the meeting were as follows: Mark Pearson (Chair); Tim Kellett; Martin Mumford; Nitin Bhasin; Estelle Doughty; Peter Bartram; Stephen Kirby
Conflicts of Interest:
Peter Bartram, (RIBA representative) declared a personal interest as a local resident of East Looe, but stayed in the meeting as a contributor on the Panel.
Divisional Member was invited, but did not attend the meeting.
Thank you for your recent presentation. Please find below the comments from the Cornwall Design Review Panel. This is the formal guidance of the Panel and you should disregard any specific points made by individual panel members during the formative discussion as they may not now reflect the overall views of the Panel.
Panel Guidance
For clarity the Cornwall Design Review Panel are not considering the principle of the development but focusing on design matters for the presented scheme to assist the Design Team and Local Planning Authority.
Context
The Panel were informed that this site comprises one field located on east side of Barbican Road. The field is bordered by an enclosed reservoir / post office sorting office / industrial estate / football pitch to the south west; private dwelling to the north and Looe Secondary School to the west of Barbican Road.
Landscape Character
The Panel were advised that the site is part of the wider local designation of AGLV and Coastal Zone. In context to wider landscape views looking back toward the site from the east and north east particularly, the site is seen in context too the established built form and the ridge line that defines East Looe along Barbican Road. However there was no detailed LVIA analysis presented, so this represented a preliminary indication of landscape impact assessment.
With the site itself the land form slopes across the field south to north, but falls steeply to the east boundary down into the valley leading down to Millendreath. Each boundary is characterised by hedgebanks of varying maturity.
Scheme layout presented
The Panel were advised that the scheme proposed is to incorporate a supermarket and associated service yard located opposite the school on Barbican Road in the south west corner of the site. The supermarket car park would be located to the east of the supermarket and petrol filling station to the south of the car park. Housing would be located adjacent to the northern site boundary fronting Barbican Road. The main junction and access road into the site would subdivide the two parts of the scheme and provide access to all parts of the scheme on the eastern side of the site.
Community land is being proposed on the steepest part of the site adjacent to the eastern boundary with skate park and football clubhouse indicatively shown on more level areas and with proposed pedestrian access via third party land up to the football pitch south of the site.
The Panel were advised that in order to achieve this development, minimising the impact of development in the wider landscape as well as from Barbican Road has created a scheme that would require quite substantial changes of levels by ‘cut and fill’, stepping down from the southern to the northern site boundaries. The supermarket and car park would be built on a single level, then step down to the highway access and down again to a separate single level to accommodate the housing scheme.
The Panel were also advised that the orientation of the supermarket would presently create active frontage to the northern and eastern elevations facing the access road and car park. The western elevation facing Barbican Road would be inactive and faced walls to the store and service yard.
The proposed layout of the housing scheme sited below the new access road is presently shown with active fronts of properties facing inward and rear gardens / rear elevations facing outward to Barbican Road; outward toward the south facing the retained slope of the scheme boundary with the new access road; and outward rear gardens facing the northern boundary hedge bordering onto the neighbouring land. The access road enters the housing scheme from the eastern end of this layout.
The Panel were advised that in order to access this development, Barbican Road would be subject to highway works to widen the carriageway and include a new pavement on the development frontage and access road connected off a new full sized roundabout. The existing field hedge opposite the school would be removed to accommodate these works, and a new hedgebank would be built set back behind a new pavement. A new pedestrian access leading to the supermarket is being proposed which connect from a new crossing point on Barbican Road, between the new hedge and side of the store.
Panel guidance on presented Layout
The Panel consider that the amount of cut and fill proposed creates a number of constraints to the scheme layout, from the decision taken to set the buildings down as low as possible to reduce impact in relation to the school and in the broader landscape.
The Panel consider that the whole layout is inward looking and bears little relationship to the rest of the town. The building frontages face inwards to the car park, or internal street in respect of the housing, resulting in rear hedging/fences on the public faces of the development. The internal access road should also be considered as a public space or route in this case. Stronger, mutually supportive, relationships need to be discovered between the mix of elements that make up the proposed development and then the whole, in turn, needs to relate positively to the immediate context that surrounds the site.
Permeability of the whole plan should be revisited. The site layout is governed by level differences throughout creating a number of barriers to safe and convenient pedestrian and cycle access in to and through the site. This issue is of particular importance given the new facilities that are proposed for community use.
The articulation of the layout is weak. There are opportunities missed for a more vibrant and active frontage of the whole development to Barbican Road. This includes exploring the possibility of siting housing as a direct frontage [one row of houses] with the supermarket located further to the rear.
The current relationship of the supermarket to Barbican Road currently presents no active frontage. This is surprising given the planned footpath into the site from Barbican Road, which would create a very awkward space between the side of the store / service yard wall and new realigned hedge row through which a considerable number of pedestrian / cycle movements could take place. This is clearly an undesirable route that is not over-looked. The pedestrian route to the supermarket front door [from the town or school] consists of long routes around two blank sides of the large building, hidden from view of the streets by additional hedges. There is no sense of encouragement or clear legibility to the pedestrian approach.
The Panel are very concerned with the quality of the housing scheme presented. The inward orientation of the housing layout does not create a positive relationship between the housing and Barbican Road and in relation to the internal access road and supermarket. In fact pedestrians would look down into rear gardens or across into bedroom windows unless a long rear fence is created. This solution would create a very blank and unattractive edge to a main access street. There is a high risk that the future residents will feel isolated as a new community and social integration with the rest of the town will be made more difficult by this layout.
The Panel consider that the amount of cut and fill proposed creates a number of constraints to the scheme layout, from the decision taken to set the buildings down as low as possible to reduce impact in relation to the school and in the broader landscape.
The Panel consider that the whole layout is inward looking and bears little relationship to the rest of the town. The building frontages face inwards to the car park, or internal street in respect of the housing, resulting in rear hedging/fences on the public faces of the development. The internal access road should also be considered as a public space or route in this case. Stronger, mutually supportive, relationships need to be discovered between the mix of elements that make up the proposed development and then the whole, in turn, needs to relate positively to the immediate context that surrounds the site.
Permeability of the whole plan should be revisited. The site layout is governed by level differences throughout creating a number of barriers to safe and convenient pedestrian and cycle access in to and through the site. This issue is of particular importance given the new facilities that are proposed for community use.
The articulation of the layout is weak. There are opportunities missed for a more vibrant and active frontage of the whole development to Barbican Road. This includes exploring the possibility of siting housing as a direct frontage [one row of houses] with the supermarket located further to the rear.
The current relationship of the supermarket to Barbican Road currently presents no active frontage. This is surprising given the planned footpath into the site from Barbican Road, which would create a very awkward space between the side of the store / service yard wall and new realigned hedge row through which a considerable number of pedestrian / cycle movements could take place. This is clearly an undesirable route that is not over-looked. The pedestrian route to the supermarket front door [from the town or school] consists of long routes around two blank sides of the large building, hidden from view of the streets by additional hedges. There is no sense of encouragement or clear legibility to the pedestrian approach.
The Panel are very concerned with the quality of the housing scheme presented. The inward orientation of the housing layout does not create a positive relationship between the housing and Barbican Road and in relation to the internal access road and supermarket. In fact pedestrians would look down into rear gardens or across into bedroom windows unless a long rear fence is created. This solution would create a very blank and unattractive edge to a main access street. There is a high risk that the future residents will feel isolated as a new community and social integration with the rest of the town will be made more difficult by this layout.
External lighting of the whole scheme, but especially the supermarket; car park; petrol filling station and community buildings proposed, will need to be carefully considered. This scheme could be very prominent in the landscape in the hours of darkness unless lighting is carefully designed.
Architectural Approach
The Panel commend the approach to build a supermarket to BREEAM Very Good construction standard using a timber frame building (Siberian larch) with Timber infill panels and bonded plinth. However the Panel guidance regarding the pattern of development; orientation of the supermarket on the site and lack of active store entrance should be accommodated within the design / construction / layout of the building. Creation of a corner tower to the supermarket (north west corner) would be best placed to create an entrance that is legible / visible to pedestrians entering the site.
With regard to the housing scheme, there is no architectural merit discernable in this current scheme. A contemporary approach is recommended, with opportunities for a high standard of construction.
Designing out crime
The proposed mix of development, potentially create a number of opportunities for crime and anti social behaviour that need to be addressed. Management of community uses especially the skate board park; football clubhouse; and attraction of these facilities for children in context to unauthorised use of the supermarket car park outside store opening times, need to be considered and resolved.
The quality of routes for pedestrians throughout the scheme should also be reviewed to ensure that natural surveillance is designed into all routes into the throughout the site.
Sustainability
In context to the housing scheme, the opportunities for a high standard of construction should be taken, particularly for a scheme that is creating 100% affordable housing.
The Panel would recommend that a detailed energy strategy that encompasses methods of energy conservation and conservation of resources is incorporated into the scheme details. For the housing component of the scheme, this should incorporate the site layout, building design, construction and plot layout. Gardens size and orientation are also very important to increase solar gain and use of environmental technologies as part of the masterplan to inform the detailed scheme(s). This is important because they often change and influence spatial layout design as well as the architecture of buildings this should incorporate a strategy to use renewable energy and local installers / suppliers who can demonstrate that products are properly certified as sustainable.
Summary of Panel Guidance
Presented Layout
The Panel consider that the amount of cut and fill proposed creates a number of constraints to the scheme layout.
The layout of the whole plan should be revisited. It is currently inward looking and governed by level differences throughout, creating a number of barriers to safe and convenient pedestrian and cycle access in to and through the site.
The articulation of the layout is weak. There are opportunities missed for a more vibrant and active frontage of the whole development to Barbican Road.
The Panel are very concerned with quality of the housing scheme presented. The housing scheme should incorporate active frontages to positively address Barbican Road. Level differences particularly for properties facing south but below a retained slope up to the access road, should be reconsidered.
External lighting of the whole scheme, but especially the supermarket; car park; petrol filling station and community buildings proposed, will need to be carefully considered.
The Panel commend a supermarket built to BREEAM Very Good construction standard.
However the Panel guidance regarding the pattern of development; orientation of the supermarket on the site and lack of active store entrance should be accommodated within the design / construction / layout of the building.
A contemporary approach to the housing development is recommended, with opportunities for a high standard of construction.
Designing out crime
The current arrangement of uses on the site potentially creates crime and anti social behaviour that need to be addressed.
The quality of routes for pedestrians into and throughout the scheme should be reviewed.
Sustainability
In context to the housing scheme, the opportunities for a high standard of construction should be taken, particularly for a scheme that is creating 100% affordable housing.
The Panel consider that the amount of cut and fill proposed creates a number of constraints to the scheme layout.
The layout of the whole plan should be revisited. It is currently inward looking and governed by level differences throughout, creating a number of barriers to safe and convenient pedestrian and cycle access in to and through the site.
The articulation of the layout is weak. There are opportunities missed for a more vibrant and active frontage of the whole development to Barbican Road.
The Panel are very concerned with quality of the housing scheme presented. The housing scheme should incorporate active frontages to positively address Barbican Road. Level differences particularly for properties facing south but below a retained slope up to the access road, should be reconsidered.
External lighting of the whole scheme, but especially the supermarket; car park; petrol filling station and community buildings proposed, will need to be carefully considered.
The Panel commend a supermarket built to BREEAM Very Good construction standard.
However the Panel guidance regarding the pattern of development; orientation of the supermarket on the site and lack of active store entrance should be accommodated within the design / construction / layout of the building.
A contemporary approach to the housing development is recommended, with opportunities for a high standard of construction.
Designing out crime
The current arrangement of uses on the site potentially creates crime and anti social behaviour that need to be addressed.
The quality of routes for pedestrians into and throughout the scheme should be reviewed.
Sustainability
In context to the housing scheme, the opportunities for a high standard of construction should be taken, particularly for a scheme that is creating 100% affordable housing.
The Panel would recommend that a detailed energy strategy that
encompasses methods of energy conservation and conservation of resources
is incorporated into the scheme details for the supermarket and housing.
We trust these comments are of assistance, but it must be emphasized that they represent the views of the Cornwall Design Review Panel only and are based on the information presented and discussed at the Panel meeting. Furthermore these comments cannot prejudice the outcome of a full appraisal of a planning application on this site or any final determination made through delegation by the Head of the Planning and Regeneration Service or a decision made by a Cornwall Council Committee.
Confidentiality
Information in this message is commercially confidential and should not be passed onto any third party. It is intended solely for the person to whom it is addressed and solely for the purposes of review of pre-application proposals at the Design Review Panel meeting as detailed in the invite / agenda.
Whilst every attempt will be made to protect the commercial confidentiality of promoters at the pre-application stage, the Cornwall Design Review Panel guidance on specific schemes that have been reviewed, will be made public once the project becomes registered as a formal planning application.
We trust these comments are of assistance, but it must be emphasized that they represent the views of the Cornwall Design Review Panel only and are based on the information presented and discussed at the Panel meeting. Furthermore these comments cannot prejudice the outcome of a full appraisal of a planning application on this site or any final determination made through delegation by the Head of the Planning and Regeneration Service or a decision made by a Cornwall Council Committee.
Confidentiality
Information in this message is commercially confidential and should not be passed onto any third party. It is intended solely for the person to whom it is addressed and solely for the purposes of review of pre-application proposals at the Design Review Panel meeting as detailed in the invite / agenda.
Whilst every attempt will be made to protect the commercial confidentiality of promoters at the pre-application stage, the Cornwall Design Review Panel guidance on specific schemes that have been reviewed, will be made public once the project becomes registered as a formal planning application.
Supported by:
Cornwall Council, St Austell One Stop Shop, 39 Penwinnick Road, St Austell, Cornwall, PL25 5DR
Tel: 0300 1234 100 www.cornwall.gov.uk
Cornwall Council, St Austell One Stop Shop, 39 Penwinnick Road, St Austell, Cornwall, PL25 5DR
Tel: 0300 1234 100 www.cornwall.gov.uk
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