Planning

Green belt restrictions and the need to retain views of the Hanham Hills meant more than a third of the site could not be built on. These green areas now provide an array of shared amenity spaces. A new park extends through the site and beyond and includes access to greenhouses, an apiary, allotments, orchards, retained trees and hedgerows, play spaces, a village green, formal gardens, a swale and pond with extensive areas of meadow grass beyond. Street parking is concentrated in the secondary mews roads and rear courtyards ensuring that the main public spaces remain free of vehicular clutter.

The biggest challenge at Hanham Hall was to design a scheme that would meet stringent building standard requirements and satisfy all stakeholders. To achieve this balance, we created a structured engagement programme working with a vast range of parties, including our client and design team partners, the Homes and Communities Agency, English Heritage, South Gloucestershire Council as the Local Planning Authority, Sovereign Housing Association, the Green Belt Society, residents, and the supply chain. As the design progressed, the team organised regular briefing meetings with the parish council and held two public consultation events for the wider community.

The consultant planning team put a Planning Performance Agreement in place with the local authority's planning team, and a partnership approach that both parties enthusiastically embraced was key to the scheme's success. There was a real sense of a joined purpose being achieved. HTA was a continuous presence in the design progression of the scheme, which was rigorously assessed by the HCA's design review teams.