Featured Case Study:

Breckland Design Guide, Breckland Council

An aspirational design guide to raise quality across a rural district in Norfolk

Tibbalds were commissioned by Breckland Council to prepare a district-wide design guide for applicants, planning officers, members and parish councillors. It sets clear design quality standards for new development and provides an overarching framework to help neighbourhood planning to set locally-specific design guides/ codes.

Project Deliverables:: Supplementary Planning Document
Client:: Breckland Council
Location:: Breckland District, Norfolk
Status:: Adopted April 2024

Expertise: Policy and Strategy
Services: Engagement and consultation Design codes and other guidance

“The Design Guide has been very well received and is extremely useful, in fact we recently won 3 appeals using it” – one year after adoption

Rachel Gibbs
Senior Planning Policy Officer March 2025

The brief aimed to raise the design quality of new development across Breckland, a diverse, rural district with 5 market towns, over 130 villages and many hamlets.

Tibbalds’ design guide process road-tested the 3-stage coding process put forward in the National Model Design Code. It built upon the recent Breckland Landscape and Settlement Character Assessment (also produced by Tibbalds together with LUC) which defined a series of area-types for both the market towns and for rural settlements in the district.

To develop our understanding of local design issues and priorities for the design guide, we held workshops with officers and members. We addressed the challenge of consulting with communities across a large, very rural area through an initial on-line survey via the 112 parish councils and key stakeholders. Respondents were then able to sign up for ongoing involvement at in-person and on-line events, including drop-ins and workshops.

Through this process, six local design priorities were identified for the guide:

complementing and enhancing the context;
inclusive processes;
integration with nature;
encouraging active travel;
distinctive local identity; and
climate-responsive design.

The guidance is intended to help all those who are involved in the planning and design process, including applicants, officers and members. Also parish councils, whose responsibilities include commenting on applications, preparing neighbourhood plans, design guides/ codes and, in some cases, taking on the management of open spaces within their area.

The final document is an aspirational guide that supports local policy and aims to raise the design standards of new development in Breckland through clear design principles that address local issues. Together with the Landscape and Settlement Character Assessment, it also provides a coordinating framework for parishes to prepare more locally specific design guides/ codes for their local areas.