The Essex Design Guide for Residential and Mixed Use Areas Essex Planning Officers Association

The Essex Design Guide for Residential Areas first appeared in 1973, published by Essex County Council, and was used in development control in Essex over the ensuing period. It also aroused interest more widely and was used as a model and textbook for urban design generally. Though the original Guide was influential and useful, and many of its recommendations remain relevant, it was due for updating as a result of changing circumstances.

The new version has been prepared by a working party of the Essex Planning Officers' Association, representing all planning authorities in Essex, and aims to encourage the best practice in the design and layout of residential and mixed use development. Like its predecessor, it includes a new and innovative set of highway standards, but, unlike it, the new Guide encourages mixed uses and makes recommendations on environmental sustainability No fewer than fourteen case studies are included in order to show the variety of approaches possible using this flexible set of guidelines.

This Guide is an essential reference for all those involved in residential and mixed use development in Essex, having been adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance by almost all planning authorities in Essex, and incorporating as it does the highway authority's approved standards for the adoption of roads and footways. The book will also be of wider interest to all those concerned with trying to improve the quality of new built environment for the twenty first century. It is fully illustrated in colour and has 120 pages.

Copies are available at £30 each, or £18 for students, from:

Audrey Ridgewell, The EnvironmentalServices Directorate,

Essex County Council, County Hall, Chelmsford, Essex CMI 1LF.

(print out and fill in the form below:)

©1998 Essex County Council & Essex Planning Officers Association