Inglewood & White Rock, Paignton Urban Expansion

Location
Torbay, Devon
Size
65ha

Edge of urban environment; provision of countryside access; mixed use

Overview: 750 homes + local centre+ 36,000sqm of employment space + local pub + primary school

Stride Treglown has been instructed by Abacus/Deeley Freed Estates in respect of their land holdings in the Torbay area since 2010. Since this time, we have secured planning permission for a mixed use residential led urban extension at White Rock comprising circa 350 dwellings, a new local centre approximately 36,000m2 of employment space together with green infrastructure, highways improvements and ecological and landscape mitigation works.

Since 2014, we have been actively engaged to promote a second site through the Local Plan process for an additional 400 residential units, along with community and education uses. We presented a comprehensive land promotion submission for consideration through the examination and, whilst not allocated at that time, the site was endorsed by a senior Planning Inspector as having significant potential to meet the long term strategic needs of the Bay area, subject to addressing key evidence points.

Since 2015, we have worked with a full design and consultant team to prepare the necessary evidence base to inform a comprehensive masterplan for Inglewood just to the south of White Rock. An outline planning application has been submitted and is now being considered by the Council. A key part of the current phase is the preparation of an Urban Design Framework, which establishes the expectations for design quality at an early stage. Significant work has been put into this, meaning that the final submission has design principles which embed the most important urban design features alongside critical mitigation/infrastructure.

In addition to the work to promote the site and prepare a planning application, we have been engaged in the emerging Neighbourhood Plans which are proposed across the Bay area. This work continues.

Current proposals include the provision of a new 2 form entry primary school, significant highways infrastructure improvements (resulting in a net improvement on the current no-development scenario) together with social infrastructure to build a genuine ‘place’ which can be considered to be a healthy development. This includes community allotments, orchards, a countryside walk linking to the wider area and significant active travel infrastructure.

The transition from Paignton’s hard urban edge into the sensitive rolling hills of the surrounding landscape was captured through measures such as lower development heights and density around the edges, countryside access for the wider community and orientating streets and spaces to open up views out into the countryside, community allotments, orchards, a countryside walk linking to the wider area and significant active travel infrastructure. Inglewood also included the retention of all field boundary hedgerows except where individual access points required to break through. The retained hedgerows will be reinforced and increased to 10m in width. Sensitive lighting will reduce the impact on bats and the neighbouring AONB.

In respect of stakeholders, in addition to project wide meetings, a number of focused meetings with stakeholders have ensured that the submitted application had general support (at the point of submission) from key parties, including in relation to the following potential impacts and mitigation proposals: ecology; landscape and visual impact; and, highways.

We saw the ability to offer comprehensive and deliverable mitigation, in perpetuity, as the most critical objective of the project. As such, there has been an ongoing and embedded commitment across the client and project team to underpin the design work with robust evidence and mitigation proposals and to ensure that they are secured. This objective has been achieved through a comprehensive package of support measures/documents, including:

  • mitigation embedded in the masterplan/design code;
  • the delivery details outlined in a Landscape and Ecological Management Plan; and,
  • changes to farming practices (to deliver improvements to species rich farmland to support protected species) secured
  • through a Farm Management Plan, tied to renegotiated farm tenancies.