FPCR were appointed by Bloor Homes in 2008 to provide landscape, ecology and arboricultural services in support of an Outline Planning Application for this sustainable, Garden Suburb style, mixed use development on Green Belt land in North Hertfordshire, east of Luton. Up to 1,400 new homes will be created along with a Local Centre, a two-form entry Primary School and an All-Through School (two-form entry primary, four-form entry secondary) set within a significant Green Infrastructure of retained woodlands and hedgerows together with new structural landscape planting and areas of open space. Proposed recreation facilities include sports pitches with a pavilion, equipped children’s play, allotment gardens, and an extensive footpath/cycleway network incorporating various trails.
The practice has prepared development capacity options, the Framework Plan and Illustrative Masterplan, Design and Access Statement, Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Management Plan (GIBMP) and the Arboricultural Assessment along with the Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment and Ecological Assessment for the Environmental Statement and a series of exhibition boards for the public consultation events. FPCR also produced a GIBMP for Putteridge Bury, a Registered Park and Garden close to the application site.