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Wavensmere Plans Wolverhampton Waterside Project
Wavensmere Homes has submitted a full planning application to City of Wolverhampton Council for the proposed £150m residential-led Canalside South...
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First Challenge To Labour’s Planning Reform Commitment Laid Down
Dorchester Living is about to test whether Labour is serious about planning permission reform by requesting that its housing estate project in Oxfordshire be allowed to blossom into full-blown 6,000 home new town.
A ‘scoping request’ has been submitted to Cherwell District Council, which has been well received. Now Dorchester Living and sister company Dorchester Regeneration expect the green light for a formal planning application.
A masterplan would then be re-developed further should NIMBYs be ridden rough-shod over – a commitment made by Labour in its manifesto and enshrined in the King’s Speech.
Silver lining
Paul Silver, the chief executive of Dorchester Living says: “In recent weeks the new government has made clear that it is committed to enabling a major house building and infrastructure programme to deliver the homes and facilities that the country needs.
“A focus on brownfield-first development and the provision of high-quality, mixed-tenure homes sits at the heart of this and we at Dorchester Living fully support its ambition and we are ready to play our role in helping to achieve it.
Heyford Park
Dorchester Living is already building just over 1,000 homes at Heyford Park on the site of the dis-used RAF Upper Heyford Airbase which had been leased to America from the 1950s to the 1990s. The original planning permission granted was for 1,175 homes.
The new aim would be not only for 6,000 homes but to re-open the nearby Ardley Station and to upgrade Heyford Station to provide transport connections between London, Birmingham, Oxford and Banbury. The plans also include up to 200 assisted living houses, 20,000sq.m of new-build office space, 5,000sq.m of new industrial space and 15,000sq.m of warehousing.
The nearest town would be Bicester.
Objections
The Mid-Cherwell Neighbourhood Plan Forum (MCNP) has already said: “A central objective of the MCNP has always been to avoid the loss of countryside and damage to the rural setting of our villages.
“The Forum has already expressed its opposition to building on greenfield land adjacent to Heyford Park, and has serious concerns about the scale of Dorchester’s greatly increased ambitions for the town, not least because of the impact of traffic on our country lanes.”
Response
Dorchester Living responded by saying: “We have been working on preparing the future vision for Heyford Park with the aim of creating a sustainable new town consisting of leisure, employment, renewable energy production and a range of mixed tenure homes.
“The site is located on predominantly on brownfield land providing the opportunity to create a significant new sustainable new town in Cherwell and much needed sustainable homes and new employment opportunities.
“Over the 30% if the site has been allocated for green infrastructure providing both biodiversity enhancements and leisure opportunities. The significant areas of hardstanding provide the perfect opportunity for renewable energy production such as solar to be co-located.
“The masterplan has been carefully designed by architects Proctor & Matthews and landscape architect Kim Wilkie. It creates a new ridged settlement that utilises the topography of the site with a woodland edge in keeping with the wider countryside features. The sites disused runways and taxiways will be reused as the transport network across the site and the key buildings will be repurposed for community uses.
Villages to benefit
“The more sensitive locations around scheduled monuments have been transformed into common land where the current setting won’t change. Public rights of way that were severed by the creation of the airfield will be reinstated allowing surrounding villages to utilise the services provided across the new town.”
Dorchester Regeneration
The Heyford Park project and its expansion into a new town are headed up by Dorchester Regeneration’s Paul Silver.
Paul heads up the Heyford Park delivery team and our bespoke housebuilder business, Dorchester Living. He has been instrumental in shaping the group’s approach to community led regeneration through its Heyford Park project.
He is said to have built strong relationships with the local authorities, local councillors and other key stakeholders involved. He is an advocate in the need for Dorchester Group to establish itself as a Registered Social Landlord and set up a business specifically to manage the social and affordable housing on site.
A chartered accountant by trade, Silver joined Dorchester Group as an equity partner in 2003, having previously worked as a mergers and acquisitions advisor to the housebuilding sector at Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. On joining Dorchester Group he helped refocus the business into the new build arena, establishing its project finance arm which acted as a joint venture partner to many of the UK largest housebuilders.
Picture: Current housing on Heyford Park
Article written by Cathryn Ellis
14th August 2024