East Hertfordshire Planning Committee has granted outline planning consent for a major new development at Bishop’s Stortford. The 130 ha site, which lies on the northern edge of the town, has been earmarked for strategic development for the last 20 years.
The consented development includes up to 2,200 new homes and two mixed use Local Centres containing Primary Schools, 1,200m2 of Retail (A1-A5 uses) and 21,000m2 of B1 employment. A feature of the development is around 59 ha of multi-functional Green Infrastructure (GI) which includes the retained woodland and woodland pasture of Hoggate’s Wood and Ash Grove, which form the centre-piece of the new community.
FPCR are the project’s masterplanners, landscape architects, ecologists and arboriculturists having been appointed by the Bishop’s Stortford Consortium (Bovis Homes, Taylor Wimpey, Kier Homes, Persimmon Homes and The Fairfield Partnership) as the lead design team.
FPCR were instructed at the outset of the project and produced a ‘landscape led’ Masterplan. This derived from a comprehensive analysis of the site, with particular attention paid to landform, retained habitats, heritage, walking and cycling and urban design strategies. FPCR went on to produce the development’s outline application Masterplan, as part of an Environmental Statement. FPCR also produced an Illustrative Layout, a Design & Access Statement, which focuses on the Garden Suburb as the development’s principal theme, a GI Strategy Document for the design and long term management of the GI, and a series of Design Codes to inform the detailed layouts for the first phases. FPCR also prepared the application’s Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment, an Ecological Assessment (which included comprehensive ecological surveys) and an Arboricultural Assessment.
FPCR have been at the forefront of the various public consultation exercises and community workshops, as well as presenting the masterplan and GI proposals to East Herts Council, Bishop’s Stortford Town Council and consultees to include, amongst others, Sport England and the Bishop’s Stortford Sports Steering Group.
Bishop’s Stortford North is an excellent example of how FPCR can produce high quality masterplanning solutions, from initial conception through to planning consent, as well as utilising our various in-house multidisciplinary skills and our expertise in delivering large scale sustainable developments.