Urban Design Support, Bracknell

Urban Design Advice for Development Management purposes: We provided support to the Council’s in-house team by providing pre-application advice to developers, commenting on planning applications and holding two-weekly ‘surgeries’ at the Council’s offices to provide the opportunity for officers to discuss any urban design issues.

Tibbalds commented on a diverse range of proposals, which included small infill sites, major planning applications and masterplans. We also assisted the local development control team by attending pre-application meetings to negotiate design issues with developers for large, more complex sites, and supported them on cases that were going to appeal.

Capacity testing to inform site allocation and developer negotiations: As part of our urban design services, we prepared design-led capacity studies and illustrative layouts for key sites. This helped the Council understand the full potential of the sites and promote a vision for development. This included large strategic new housing allocations (between 750-2,000 homes) as well as smaller infill sites. Our work provided robustness to policy formulation, including the Site Allocations DPD, and confidence to officers in their negotiations with developers.

Where detailed site specific policy was prepared, we provided strategic urban design concepts and more detailed urban design advice, including a concept masterplan and green infrastructure strategy for Warfield, a strategic development north of Bracknell.

Development Brief: In some areas of the Borough, particular development pressures led to the risk of poorly conceived piecemeal development. In order to direct speculative proposals, we prepared a development brief for a prominent site near the station and town centre. The site consisted of a variety of employment uses and land ownerships, however the Council hoped to utilise the site to deliver high quality residential development.

The development brief included urban design analysis and an illustrative masterplan to help demonstrate and establish urban design principles in relation to scale, massing, access and movement. These principles provided a sound foundation to help guide future development.