Braintree District Council’s Planning Committee has resolved to grant outline planning consent for up to 205 new dwellings at Halstead in Essex. The application also gained approval for apartments with care facilities, new public open space, a children’s play area, and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). CSA provided urban design, landscape planning, ecology and arboriculture advice on the application on behalf of their client’s Gladman Development’s.
CSA’s masterplanning team had to consider a number of key constraints which included the presence of an adjacent Local Wildlife Site and sensitive near distance views to a Grade II Listed Property to the north. As a consequence of these constraints, the proposed housing was set back to respect the setting of the Wildlife Site which included a strengthened landscape boundary. By sensitively locating the development in the southern part of the Site, the landscape constraints of the Site were acknowledged and successfully addressed
Braintree District Council acknowledged that the site was sustainable for development. They found that the proposed development will deliver key social benefits of market housing, affordable housing and care facilities, together with securing economic investment in the local area and a creating a net gain in biodiversity on the site.