Design

The purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. The National Planning Policy Framework aims to ensure well-designed, beautiful and safe places.

Urban Design is not just a matter of architecture. It combines all the elements of the physical environment (streets, spaces, landscape and built form) in an integrated design.

This requires a good understanding of the place, how it works and the ability to recognise and harness the opportunities available to make successful places.

Our Adopted Local Plan includes policies that set out design expectations and requirements for all development proposals.

Major development proposals

For major development proposals the following should be incorporated:

• Compliance with council landscape guidance.
• Green space: Residential areas should include areas of informal/incidental green/open space. This should include both green and blue infrastructure, which should consist of a network of integrated features.
• National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF): The updated NPPF specifically acknowledges the important contribution that trees make to the character and quality of urban environments and that trees can also help mitigate and adapt to climate change. The framework requires that new streets are tree-lined and that opportunities are taken to incorporate trees elsewhere in developments. It is important to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right places and that appropriate measures are in place to secure the long-term maintenance of newly planted trees and that existing trees are retained wherever possible.
• Built form: Built form should establish a site wide positive and coherent identity that residents and local communities can identify with. This identity should respond to the sites context and reinforce/enhance the local vernacular. This can be achieved through a historic/traditional approach or through the adoption of a contemporary design solution - both options are valid, but whichever approach is adopted, the detailing must be of a high quality.
• Layout: The layout of the development and positioning of elements of landscape/built form should create a series of distinct spaces and take the opportunity to create character areas within the development. Character areas can be established through the hierarchy of streets, the grain of the development, the spatial enclosure of the street, the definition (boundary treatment) between the public and private domain as well as through landscaping, materials, and the design of the buildings. Distinct and legible character areas within the site should contribute to an overall distinct sense of place for the wider site.
• Public Open Space: Areas of public open space should be fronted by units in order to ensure good levels of activity and natural surveillance. Similarly, units should front boundaries with existing adjacent roads and countryside edges to avoid domination of the streetscape and wider landscape views by rear boundary treatments. The layout should also avoid these sensitive edges being dominated by parking and vehicular movements.
• Parking treatments: A variety of parking treatments should be adopted across the site. The National Design Guide requires car parking to be well-designed, landscaped and sensitively integrated into the built form so that it does not dominate the development or the street scene. The guidance states that car parking should incorporate green infrastructure, including trees, to soften the visual impact of cars, help improve air quality and contribute to biodiversity. Car parking should also be secure and overlooked.
• Road hierachy: A clear road hierarchy should be established and reinforced by adopting a varied surface material for shared surfaces and utilising a variety of frontage treatments for plots.
• Privacy and light: Back-to-back distances between buildings should comply with the Essex Design Guide (15-25m dependent on relationship between units).
• Focal/nodal buildings: Focal/nodal buildings should be included to enhance legibility within the site.
• Boundary treatments: Brick walls should be used to enclose boundaries that address public/semi-public realm, this includes parking courts.
• Biodiversity and trees: Proposals should be mindful of policy requirements regarding tree canopy cover and biodiversity net gain at an early stage so they can be considered opportunities rather than constraints within the design evolution.
• Affordable units: Proposals should be mindful of policy requirements to appear tenure blind with affordable units ‘pepper-potted’ throughout the site, with a mix that matches the sites market housing.
• Window design: Window design should be consistent across all elevations in order to ensure a consistently high standard of design. The frame of fixed panes should reflect that of opening casements.
• Meter housing and service intakes: Consideration should be given to meter housing and service intakes, these should be located out of public view or should be purposefully designed into the treatment of the building’s façade, to not cause detriment to the standard of design achieved.
• Carbon footprint: Consideration should be given to the proposals carbon footprint, for both the long and short term. This should include consideration of energy consumption and energy generation (i.e. construction methods, materials, building orientation and openings, utilities, renewables, etc).