Go ahead for 77-acre Shorncliffe Garrison proposals

Taylor Wimpey has been granted planning permission for the redevelopment of the 77-acre Shorncliffe Garrison site near Folkestone in Kent by Shepway District Council.

The approved plans include:

• Up to 1,200 homes – at least half will be 3-bedroom properties or larger, and 18% will be affordable homes.
• A new two-form entry primary school and nursery.
• A community hub focused around the Tower Theatre, which could include a doctor’s surgery, local shops, a café and other uses.
• A new facility for the Army Cadets and a pavilion/changing facility at the existing football pitches on the site.
• The potential reuse of listed buildings within the site area for a range of community and employment uses.

The masterplan for the site was created by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, working as part of the wider consultant team. It responds to the site’s long military history, and is based on five principal ideas:

• Locating development on the previously developed parts of the site, including reusing existing structures and buildings where they are compatible with the broader project objectivesGo ahead for 77-acre Shorncliffe Garrison proposals.
• Creating a strong pattern of regular streets following existing block alignment and routes and reinforcing this ‘barracks’ character with simple, regular urban blocks and frontages.
• Creating four principal character areas that respond directly to distinctive areas of existing military character, reflect the current site characteristics, and ensure that the proposals have a strong identity and contain appropriate variety.
• Use existing character generators within the site, such as landscape and building features, to create distinctive and specific character areas that respond to important site features and enhance the new elements of the masterplan.
• Running a new north-south route through the site to create an important focus for the development, create strong connections between the different parts of the site, and as the focus for direct cycle routes.

The masterplan also sets out proposals for: carefully considered views and vistas over the adjacent valley, which will be provided as public open space as part of the scheme; a focus on a legible townscape with consistent frontages; a carefully considered urban design strategy for landmark buildings, and the rhythm and grouping of buildings; and well overlooked open spaces.

Hilary Satchwell, Director of Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, said: “Although this masterplan is primarily a response to the site’s character and the need to bring forward a new community in a sustainable way, it is also about creating a flexible structure that allows Taylor Wimpey to react to evolving market conditions while still giving the local community certainty about the scale and quality of development that will be brought forward here.”

These plans are a result of the MOD’s Shorncliffe Rationalisation Project, reducing the existing Shorncliffe Garrison to provide a more secure and sustainable site, recycling the proceeds from the sale of surplus land to deliver better modern defence facilities on the land that is being retained.

Taylor Wimpey was selected by the MOD to take the project forward, and it is proposed that land will be released for development and brought forward in four phases over the next 20 years. The first start on site is expected early in the New Year with the new homes expected to be ready for occupation later in the year. Barton Willmore was the planning consultant, the detailed design of the new buildings was undertaken by Simon Cooper Associates, and the landscape architect was CSA Environmental.