Landscape led Layouts

Applicants must demonstrate, based upon an understanding of the local context, that the development has a positive and coherent identity, has optimised opportunities to deliver public spaces, and can be positively integrated into its surroundings, respecting and reinforcing the character of the area.

Well-designed places are influenced positively by the surrounding landscape characterCharacter includes all of the elements that go to make a place, how it looks and feels, its geography and landscape, its noises and smells, activity, people and businesses. This character should be understood as a starting point for all development. Character can be understood at three levels; the area type in which the site sits, its surroundings and the features of the site., urban grainThe pattern of the arrangement of street blocks, plots and their buildings in a settlement. The degree to which an area’s pattern of blocks and plot subdivisions is respectively small and frequent (fine grain), or large and infrequent (coarse grain). Urban grain is a key component of defining the character of a place., patterns of built formForm is the three-dimensional shape and modelling of buildings and the spaces they define. Buildings and spaces can take many forms, depending upon their: size and shape in plan; height; bulk – their volume; massing – how bulk is shaped into a form; building lines – the alignment of building frontages along a street; and relationship to the plot boundary – and whether they share party walls or not. In the case of spaces, their form is influenced by the buildings around them. and the local vernacular.

Developments do not need to copy their surroundings in every way but they must have a strong identityThe identity or character of a place comes from the way that buildings, streets and spaces, landscape and infrastructure combine together and how people experience them. or characterCharacter includes all of the elements that go to make a place, how it looks and feels, its geography and landscape, its noises and smells, activity, people and businesses. This character should be understood as a starting point for all development. Character can be understood at three levels; the area type in which the site sits, its surroundings and the features of the site. that comes from the way that buildings, streets and spaces, landscape and infrastructure combine together. It is appropriate to introduce elements that reflect how we live today, to include innovation or change such as increased densities where appropriate, and to incorporate new sustainable features or systems.

On larger development schemes, the introduction of small incidental public spaces can help to create successful places and give a development a clear identityThe identity or character of a place comes from the way that buildings, streets and spaces, landscape and infrastructure combine together and how people experience them.. Small spaces and public squares help to bring people together and act as a focus for community life. All have the ability to deliver some level of planting, and applicants should look to optimise opportunities to deliver soft landscape within these spaces. Spaces that include tree and other planting are invariably more successful spaces than those without. Hard spaces can incorporate trees, hedges and/or planters within the space.

Applicants should demonstrate that SuDSSuDS are a natural approach to managing drainage in and around properties and other developments. Sustainable drainage measures are ones which avoid adding to flood risks both at a development site and elsewhere in the catchment by replicating natural drainage processes.  SuDS work by slowing and holding back the water that runs off from a site, alleviating flooding and allowing natural processes to break down pollutants. solutions have been incorporated into the scheme in accordance with the drainage hierarchy.

Documents required:

• Site plan
• Site Wide Landscape Strategy
• Drainage Strategy as required by the Council’s adopted Validation Checklist