Brooklands, Milton Keynes

New high density mixed use developments such as Brooklands seek to create more sustainable neighbourhoods within Milton Keynes’ low density green environment

By Ben Kochan

	The new development planned for the 153-hectare Brooklands site in the MK’s eastern expansion area is typical of the schemes that are expected to double the city’s population over the next 20 years. ‘We aim to create places with a strong urban feel with much higher densities, up to about 40 dwellings per hectare,’ said Jane Hamilton, the retiring chief operating officer of the Milton Keynes Partnership, which has planning powers in MK. Open space: The provision of a high street, well integrated public transport and public space are also important. ‘In MK, there is a lot of open space, but it is not best used,’ she said. ‘We want to make sure every bit of green in the development is used to its full by incorporating it strategically, at the very least with the provision of landscaped walkways,’ Hamilton added.

The Brooklands site is close to the M1 motorway and a green ‘bund’, or ridge, is being built to act as a noise barrier and to absorb fumes. It is also part of the open space strategy for the scheme’s 2,500 homes.

High street: The heart of the settlement will be a high street, to be built early on in the development, offering sizeable convenience shopping including a 2,000sq m store. The masterplan drawn up by David Lock Associates seeks to avoid creating a ‘sprawling high street’. There will be different levels of activity along it, culminating in a public square around which will be located about 3.5 hectares of retail and commercial uses. A secondary school will also front on to the high street, alongside the childcare provision. The linear layout of the neighbourhood means that the high street is widely accessible to the more residential areas around it. In addition, a dedicated bus route down the high street will provide access to other neighbourhoods in MK, as well as to the central railway station.

Developer model: A new development consortium was appointed in December by the private landowners to take the scheme forward. Making Places was established in summer 2007, bringing together the civil engineering company Cofton and housing association Places for People. ‘The consortium provided significant strengths,’ according to Mary Parsons, land and development director, major projects at PfP. Cofton is carrying out the site preparation and infrastructure work while Places for People has the capital and the expertise to manage developments in the long term.

Parsons sees investment in the social infrastructure as important in contributing to the land values as well as the social sustainability of the scheme. The provision of local employment is seen by Parsons as important to create a sustainable area and the development consortium is looking to create a predominantly business area on a three hectare site close to the M1 junction.

Achieving environmental targets will bring long-term benefits, but requires costly investment upfront. PfP envisages setting up an energy company for the neighbourhood and also to achieve high environmental standards in the new social housing. This will not bring any financial returns, but will ensure that the development meets future standards, Parsons says.

Cambourne, Cambridgeshire

The challenge of securing the necessary local services and other facilities to create a self sufficient community is one which a new settlement in Cambourne, about 15km from west of Cambridge, has yet to meet.

The vision and masterplan by Terry Farrell painted an idyllic future where families could get a place in the country with urban amenities. The scheme has been on site since 1998 and about 2,200 homes have been built out of a total of 4,250. An in-depth study carried out last year, funded by Inspire East, the regional centre of excellence for sustainable communities in the East of England, showed mixed results. Amenities: The report, by Steve Platt from Cambridge Architectural Research, suggests that only that some of the vision has been achieved. ‘Cambourne delivers this promise, offering a village environment with the facilities of a small town,’ he says. It’s a safe place for children, who are often allowed to play outside; most children walk to school; the landscape is attractive, and the maximum use has been made of the existing woodland. ‘However, facilities such as shops, places to meet and sports facilities came later, and some have yet to be provided, causing frustration among the residents,’ says Platt. ‘Until recently, when the pub opened, there was nowhere to meet informally,’ he points out. ‘The developers are obviously very keen for these facilities to be in place as early as possible, but facilities like shops and pubs will only appear when there is sufficient demand.’ The settlement is too small to justify a secondary school, so the children have to travel about 10km to a nearby village. Platt accepts that it takes a long time to build a settlement, and much longer for a sense of community to develop, but he suggests that developers need to be more careful in raising expectations in their marketing literature. He does point to the effective way in which the library and health services are provided in the same building.

In sustainability and self-sufficiency terms, the development does not meet its objectives. ‘Cambourne is not self-contained in terms of jobs, secondary schools or services,’ says the report. The number of local jobs and services is increasing but car use and car ownership is still high. The majority of people travel less than 12 miles to work, but 81 per cent travel there by car, compared with only 42 per cent in Cambridge.

Connectivity: The way the new community is connected to surrounding communities is important in terms of both the physical and the social environment. Physically, Cambourne was designed to be quite separate from nearby villages. This may have been intentional, since the residents of existing villages were largely opposed to Cambourne being built, speculates Platt. The lack of public transport represents a missed opportunity to link in to local communities.

Steve Platt’s report is available at http://www.carltd.com/downloads/Cambourne.pdf

Read RUDI's case study on Cambourne here

Cranbrook, near Exeter

At Cranbrook, east of Exeter, the aim is to provide a self-sufficient small ‘market town’ with a traditional high street

	The Cranbrook site was chosen because of the availability of good transport links and its proximity to the major employment opportunities that are being expanded locally. The 180-hectare site, which sits between the main railway line from central London and the new A30 trunk road, could provide for up to 7,000 homes. Connectivity: The main street running through the site is the former detrunked A30, providing a spine. ‘This existing road enables a start on site relatively quickly,’ says East Devon council’s major projects manager Janthia Algate. At the western end of the town, however, the road will act as a barrier separating Cranbrook from surrounding villages. ‘There was a lot of concern from people in the surrounding villages that they would be absorbed into the larger town, and we are limiting this by setting down that marker,’ she explained. ‘However, is likely that existing residents will use the facilities in the new town,’ Algate added. New town centre: The main link into Exeter will be a new mainline station being built close to the town centre. The council is working with the development consortium, the East Devon New Community Partners (Taylor Woodrow, Hallam Land Management, Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes), to create a strong urban quarter, following a masterplan prepared by David Lock Associates. The council is looking for traditional Devon features with a limited amount of red brick work, preferring painted render. The streets could also be reasonably narrow to provide a feeling of enclosure. It envisages densities up to about 60 dwellings per hectare in the town centre around the high street, itself designed with limited street clutter and signage so that pedestrians and cars share the same space. ‘We have had discussions with transport planners who have agreed this outline,’ said Algate. The developers want at least one major 3,500 sqm supermarket in the town as an anchor, whilst there will also be provision for smaller retailers and small business. Employment opportunities: Cranbrook is part of a new development area comprising an expanding Exeter airport, a major business park called Skypark and an intermodal freight facility. To facilitate this development, all the companies involved are paying towards a bypass and a direct link to the new A30. CLG’s growth areas fund is expected to pay for improvements to the junction with the M5 motorway.

Northstowe

 

The planned new town of Northstowe is designed as a traditional Fen edge market town whilst that meets EcoHomes standards of energy efficiency.

The new settlement, five miles north west of the city, is intended to sit as part of a group of market towns that run from St Ives into Cambridge. Northstowe aims to achieve higher levels of environmental sustainability than currently required. Arup’s masterplan for the 9,500-home town seeks to secure well-defined boundaries with the surrounding Fen land, but aims to bring the Fens into the conurbation through a series of green corridors. The masterplan is the basis for the outline planning application now before South Cambridgeshire district council, though the principles have already been agreed in the local development framework, one of the first to be approved.

Higher densities: Unlike other towns where the densities in the outer area are lower than in the centre, the outer areas in Northstowe have higher densities (the average density across the site is 45dph). David Height, an associate director at Arup Design, drew up the masterplan. ‘This means that the benefits of the views are maximised but the denser housing would also provide a distinct, relatively firm edge to the town, he says.’ He suggested that this would avoid sprawl and the town merging into the surrounding villages. South Cambridgeshire council had sought, in the local development framework, to define a ‘green separation’ between Northstowe and other villages, but this was ruled out by the inspector.

Green corridors: The three green corridors would permeate through the town changing their nature from wild areas on the edges to more formal spaces in the centre. The site, owned by English Partnerships and the developer Gallaghers, was previously used for an airfield, barracks and a golf course, and Height sees the corridors actually adding to the biodiversity in the area and locking the town into its rural surroundings. The corridors help to define three neighbourhoods. These are mainly residential, though each have their own centres and distinctive characters. A spine road running north to south will link all the neighbourhoods. It crosses the east-west green corridors in the town centre. ‘The spine road has a gentle curve to maximise the access to all the facilities provided along it,’ explained Height.

New town centre: The town centre is seen as offering a wide range of services, including major offices and shopping. ‘We want to avoid residents having to go into Cambridge for their needs,’ says Height. The retail offer is expected to include a large department store as well as convenience shopping. Employment areas for high technology business are identified at either ends of the town whilst a high density business district is proposed on the southern side of the town centre. The housing areas will be arranged on a traditional grid with 80-100 metre dimensions, which the masterplan suggests is a proportion common to Cambridge and creates ‘a clear anatomy making it easy to find your way from school to sports field, or from the office to the bus stop.’

Transport links: The Northstowe site is close to the route of a new guided busway currently under construction. This will link different sections of the town, and also connect it to Cambridge city centre and surrounding towns and villages. The bus will run along a disused railway line for part of its route, with a spur provided through the town. ‘One of the reasons this site was chosen for the new settlement was its proximity to the route of the busway,’ explained Height. Major containment ponds are planned as part of the drainage strategy which will fill up in times of heavy rainfall.

Housing and energy: The private housing aims to achieve CSH level three, whilst the affordable homes will achieve CSH level four, requiring some local energy generation. Renewables could meet about 17 per cent of the energy requirements across all the development. District-wide combined heat and power is being considered, as well as individual local systems. As Government environmental requirements become more demanding, it is envisaged that the targets will be raised at Northstowe.

Read the CABE Northstowe design review: 'At the moment we are concerned that design development of the masterplan has not fully resolved issues of identity, morphology and connectivity. We think there is further work needed by all the parties involved in this project and encourage the design team with the local authority, English Partnerships and the developer to continue working together to resolve these issues. The local planning authority has concerns regarding identity, phasing and sustainability; we agree with their views...'

Sherford, Devon

The development of Sherford new community east of Plymouth, planned to include 4,500 homes, schools, a health centre and 150 shops, is managed by collaboration between a commercial investor and a developer.

The development vehicle, Red Tree, expects to see the scheme at Sherford through all its development stages from site ownership through to completed construction. With a town on this scale, the development approach is different to other schemes where short-term profits are taken at each stage. According to James Koe, a partner at Red Tree: ‘Housebuilders know only how to build houses – not communities.’ The company expects a return from its investment over a longer period from the development. Red Tree is committed to providing much of the infrastructure upfront, including schools and a health centre. The development will also be linked by a public transport link to Plymouth city centre. Whilst it has been suggested that costs could affect the viability of this scheme, Red Tree argues that it is not tied by meeting the demands of shareholders. The company is 50 per cent owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland and ‘is not directly responsive to either the short-term shareholder demand cycles that most UK publicly listed house builders must operate under, or the relatively inflexible models of risk and delivery upon which investors usually make their choices,’ the company told an inquiry into the core strategy for South Hams. New high street: A traditional high street is proposed for the centre of the town in the outline planning application now being considered by South Hams and Plymouth councils. The street would offer about 80,000 sq m of shops and employment to create a relatively self-sufficient area and reduce the need to travel into Plymouth. The company plans to put in the high street early in the development. It would benefit from being located on a major link into Plymouth, and a ‘park and ride’ for 2,000 cars is planned nearby, giving it considerable passing trade from the outset. Savills emphasise the importance of providing the shops and offices from the outset, rather than afterwards. According to Yolande Barnes, research director, this could require some form of cross subsidy and the use of turnover rents on the premises to allow for the lower levels of profitability in the early years.

Paul Murrain, the scheme’s urban designer, who previously worked for the Princes Foundation (which carried out an Enquiry by Design into the Sherford plans in the project’s early stages), suggests that the commercial elements will be ‘pepper-potted’ among the housing on the mixed use high street. ‘There is no reason why many employment uses, offices and homes cannot be next to each other.’

The high street area of the masterplan proposes the highest density housing at around 60-80 homes to the hectare. The masterplan argues that the density can work with the quality of amenities being planned and can, in fact, support additional amenities. It points out that ‘often the most expensive property is the densest, be it world cities or traditional small towns.’

Design codes in practice: The aim is to recreate a traditional Devon town. ‘We are looking at the DNA of the towns around and trying to incorporate that into the design of the new town, particularly through design codes,’ says Murrain. The design being considered is traditional. and some have compared it to Poundbury. Murrain, who subscribes to New Urbanist ideas, suggests that there are timeless principles that make a successful place. The codes set out mandatory features for the buildings in terms of the materials and the layout, which are generally of a traditional nature. He argues that ‘creativity comes from working within constraints.’ He also points out that the codes are not so prescriptive in that they allow parameters for the height of buildings in some locations. They will also be reviewed after the first phase of development.