placemaking strategy - gilston park estate · placemaking refers to a collaborative process by...

Placemaking Strategy

Village Life

APRIL 2019

Garden City Principle Relevant Gilston Park Estate StrategyStrong vision, leadership and community engagement Placemaking Strategy

Governance Strategy

Land value capture to deliver the social and physical infrastructure for the benefit of the community

Governance StrategyEducation and Learning Strategy

Long-term community ownership of land and stewardship of assets

Governance Strategy

Mixed-tenure homes and housing types including those that are genuinely affordable

Housing StrategyPlacemaking Strategy

A wide range of local jobs within easy commuting distance of homes

Inclusive Growth StrategyPlacemaking StrategySustainable Movement Strategy

Beautifully and imaginatively designed homes with access to open space, combining the best of town and country to create healthy communities, and including opportunities to grow food

Placemaking StrategyHealth and Wellbeing StrategyHousing StrategyNatural and Historic Landscape Strategy

Development that enhances the natural environment, providing a comprehensive green infrastructure network and net biodiversity gains, and that uses energy-positive technology to ensure climate resilience

Natural and Historic Landscape StrategySustainability StrategyPlacemaking Strategy

Strong cultural, recreational and shopping facilities in walkable, vibrant, sociable communities

Placemaking StrategySustainable Movement Strategy

Integrated and accessible sustainable transport systems, with walking, cycling and public transport designed to be the most attractive forms of local transport for new residents to travel within the Gilston Area and to key local destinations

Sustainable Movement StrategyPlacemaking StrategySustainability StrategyGovernance Strategy

The proposals for Gilston Park Estate respond to the requirements of Policy GA1 of the East Herts District Plan and specifically the Garden City principles identified at criteria III of the policy. The table below identifies which of the ‘strategies’ submitted in support of the application address the requirements of each Garden City principle.

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Placemaking commitments

Places for People commits to:

1. Embedding placemaking principles into the Strategic Design Guide to ensure the distinct character of each village is considered as part of the Village Masterplan process and in the preparation of Village Design Codes.

2. Embodying key spatial parameters into the Parameter Plans to ensure the form of the villages, the response to existing context and provision of a comprehensive network of landscape and open spaces is considered in the preparation of Village Masterplans.

3. Delivery of flexible local employment space across specific villages which has been incorporated into the Development Specification that is submitted for approval.

4. Promote and encourage sustainable travel to achieve mode share targets which forms part of the Travel Plan that is submitted for approval.

5. Deliver a wide range of housing types and sizes to meet the diverse housing need requirements which are committed as part of the Development Specification.

6. Curate and manage village centres from day 1 to ensure early and continued vibrancy, which will form part of commitments in the Section 106 Agreement.

7. Implementing the Governance Strategy that will empower existing and new residents to make decisions on the management of the new community which will be secured through the Section 106 Agreement.

8. Maximising opportunities for local business, existing and new, within the development.

9. Working with local communities and groups to develop a programme of events and interim uses.

10. Invest in delivery of the Digital Masterplan to embed the latest technologies into the fabric of the new villages.

11. Maximising opportunities for existing communities including agreed “early wins” initiatives.

Placemaking Strategy APRIL 2019

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“Village Life”

A Placemaking Strategy for Gilston Park Estate

“Human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be enjoyed together,”

‘Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform’, Ebenezer Howard, 1898

Just as the original Garden Cities were planned to combine the best of town and country, we have a unique opportunity at Gilston Park Estate to marry the two once more; six new villages in the Hertfordshire countryside, with the convenience and opportunity of proximity to Harlow’s economic opportunities and infrastructure plus accessibility by road and rail to elsewhere. Yet creating a cluster of authentic new villages presents challenges as well as many opportunities. Understanding what makes ‘village life’ so special sits at the heart of everything we are planning for Gilston Park Estate.

Village noun [ C ]› a group of houses, stores, and other buildings

which is smaller than a town: We live just outside the village of Larchmont.› A village is also the people who live in a village: The whole village came out for the parade. The village supported the local charity

If we look at a Dictionary definition of a village, it is not just the physical built environment, it is the collective name for the people that live there. That is its unique and defining feature; what gives it its unique character and vibrancy. A developer cannot create that – the people that will live there will. What we can do is create the right environment, supported by a long term investment and commitment to help these new, as well as existing, communities flourish into the future.

What makes a village unique is its relationship with its landscape; that it has grown from it, respects it and feels like it belongs. That relationship with open countryside, even in close proximity to a town, is a key determinant of the quality of life it will offer.

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Our six new Villages at Gilston will take 15-20 years to be developed. We must ensure that the plans we put in place now, at this outline planning stage, are both robust and flexible.

This Placemaking Strategy outlines how Places for People will approach this, the key principles that will guide Gilston Park Estate’s future development and the commitments we are making to support it now and in the future.

What do we mean by ‘Placemaking’?

Placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community.

Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, Placemaking refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value.

More than just promoting better urban design, Placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.

With community-based participation at its centre, an effective Placemaking process capitalizes on a local community’s assets, inspiration, and potential, and it results in the creation of quality public spaces that contribute to people’s health, happiness, and wellbeing.

Project for Public Spaces

Placemaking means many different things to different people. For Places for People it is the epicentre of what we do; to work in genuine partnership to help forge those essential connections between people and the places they live. Sometimes that may be physically connecting – through infrastructure investment. It may be ensuring local people can access the economic and other opportunities that are happening locally. Sometimes it is helping shape those essential social connections to bring people together – existing communities and newcomers; bringing together people living in the same street or whose children attend the same school.

At Gilston Park Estate it is all of these and more – with health, happiness and wellbeing of all residents, existing and new, our utmost priority. Places for People has been committed from the outset to help create a beautiful and resilient place at Gilston Park Estate. Beauty from its unique landscape and assets as well as in the buildings, parks and spaces that we will help shape and create over the years to come.

Resilience by facing the future; acknowledging the challenges that may be ahead and embracing the opportunities they may bring to create a framework to guide investment and support local communities to help ensure Gilston Park Estate will remain a vibrant and thriving place for people.

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Contents

1. Introduction 08

2. Gilston Park Estate vision 09

3. Relevant planning policy and guidance 13

4. Placemaking principles and objectives 15

5. Village life 17

6. Village centres 34

7. Place curation: growing the community 38


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Gilston Park Estate is the largest site allocation within the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town. It will deliver 8,500 new homes across six individual villages, providing a significant proportion of East Herts housing needs, whilst also supporting the social and economic regeneration of Harlow.

Development at this scale provides a rare opportunity to plan homes, streets and living spaces strategically, to create high quality environments that enable communities to thrive. It provides an opportunity to learn from best practice elsewhere, explore new and innovative strategies and work in partnership across sectors to deliver the best possible place.

Places for People is an award winning placemaking and regeneration company that takes a commercial approach to delivering social outcomes. Places for People commit and invest in the long-term sustainability of its places, and adopt an inclusive approach to placemaking to ensure communities succeed in the long term.

In short, we believe that Places work when they work for everybody.

Gilston Park Estate will deliver places to live, places to work and workout, places to relax, places to think and play. Gilston Park Estate preserves the site’s rich heritage and identity, carefully locating each of the 6 villages to respond to the site’s context.

Gilston Park Estate provides the ingredients necessary to create a thriving new community. However, delivering successful neighbourhoods is about much more than the sum of their parts and involves a careful layering to evoke a strong sense of place - including architecture and public realm, culture, curation of village centre activities, access to beautiful and stimulating countryside, promotion of health and wellbeing, etc - which come together to deliver an exceptional and unique place.

This Placemaking Strategy sets out a plan to deliver our vision for Gilston Park Estate and explains how, through a series of placemaking principles, the constituent parts will collectively create a successful new place.

Our approach to placemaking is integrated with our approach to sustainability. This Placemaking Strategy combines with the Sustainability Strategy, which together reflect the key economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development.

1 Introduction

Placemaking strategy

(social and economic)

Sustainability strategy

(environmental)

Healthy and sustainable

community at Gilston Park

Estate+ =

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The adopted East Herts District Plan allocates the Gilston Park Estate for a residential led development, founded upon Garden City principles. These principles have directly informed the vision for the Gilston Park Estate set out within the Concept Framework and developed with the Council and local people:

“EHDC’s vision for the Gilston Area is to deliver housing within several distinct villages each of individual character that are informed by the landscape, topographical and built features of the area.

Each village will be clearly separated by meaningful and high quality landscape. The villages will have a compact centre, with softer edges facing onto green space. The centres will be designed to be individually distinctive and to become natural meeting places, providing a good range of day to day services and facilities alongside housing for groups who will benefit from close location to village services.

Every village will be designed using appropriate materials which respond to existing local context and architecture. The villages will be planned to support healthy community lifestyles, including a range of housing types and tenures, reducing car dependency, encouraging participation in community life, active mobility, sport and enjoyment of the countryside. The housing mix will include typologies and tenures suitable for all ages, will support home working and learning and offer a range of accessible tenures

including genuinely affordable housing and homes for those with care and support needs. Particular care will be taken to ensure that homes front the streets and lanes and car parking is carefully designed into the new villages so as not to dominate the street scene. Sustainable transport choices, new technologies and the creation of walkable neighbourhoods to reduce the dependence on car borne traffic will be strongly promoted. A cohesive and enhanced rural landscape will bind all the new and existing villages together. Community ownership and management of these areas will ensure an attractive and permanent green setting, offering substantially increased access to open spaces and amenity for all. Existing villages and communities / clusters of houses will be physically respected but functionally integrated to form a unified wider community.

The Gilston Area development will draw on the strategic thinking of the original ‘Garden City’ values of equality, good health, quality of life, a sense of community and access to employment, facilities and the countryside. The landowners and EHDC have committed to the principle of land value capture and the funding and delivery of services and infrastructure needed to support the Gilston Area, alongside the long-term community stewardship of community assets and land. New infrastructure will be phased to mitigate the impacts of the development (including on existing communities).

2 Gilston Park Estate vision


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Development of the Gilston Area will be delivered in conjunction with initiatives to further develop and regenerate Harlow through the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town initiative.

This will relate in particular to the delivery of strategic infrastructure to remedy current deficiencies, coordination of the infrastructure delivery to service the growth areas surrounding the town and seeking potential funding/ investment to support its delivery”

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A diverse employm

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labour supplyThe heart of the LSCC UK Innovation

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Integrated transport:

a viable and preferred

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Anticipating change

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Enhancing the Green Belt and expanding the Green Wedge network

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Using technology in

energy generation

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Maximising visibility

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A diagram setting out the inter-relationship between the four themes identified for healthy growth, and their set of relating principles. Long term stewardship ties these themes together. New facilities will not be sustainable without well organised management structures supported by consistent revenue streams.

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Making the village vision a reality The success of a village is not determined by its scale, but instead by its characteristics and community spirit.

The village concept of Gilston Park Estate seeks to extract the key features and characteristics that embody a successful village and apply them in a modern context, incorporating the necessary future proofing that will enable the villages to evolve in response to technological changes and innovation.Village life within the Gilston Park Estate will embody a range of inter-related activities.

There will be a range of housing types and tenures; a mix of services and facilities to meet households day to day needs. We can help create local employment opportunities including the promotion of workspace for small and medium sized businesses whilst still ensuring easy access to the countryside offering a range of recreation and leisure activities. We will provide a range of community facilities including school places for every child, and attractive public realm and high quality architecture that fosters a strong sense of pride and ownership.

In short, our villages will be places for everyone to enjoy every day life.

RelaxGet

together

Make things

Think

Eat, drink and be merry

Connect

WorkDo

nothing

Make friends

Be healthy and well

Shop

Play

Meet

Learn

A village is a place

to...


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However each village will be different but complementary. Each will have a distinct character and offer. The provision of an integrated network of attractive walking and cycling routes, as well as high quality public transport facilities, will facilitate ease of access within and between villages – existing and new – delivering healthy lifestyles and promoting diversity across the villages.

To achieve this we need a strong set of Design principles that will help ensure this cohesiveness and variety can be simultaneously achieved. These are set out in the Strategic Design Guide and include the following:

1. Villages should have a collective Gilston Park Estate identity while having distinct individual characters and a recognisable range of treatment from centres to middle and to edges.

2. Gilston Park Estate will respect and have a positive relationship with its heritage assets.

3. Homes should be of the highest quality design and construction and the widest range of accommodation types will be provided.

4. There should be a balance and rich variety of building design, including material treatment, from traditional to modern and reflecting individual village character.

5. Development should maximise innovation and sustainability in site layout and building design.

6. Gilston Park Estate will be designed to value and maximise access to landscape and open spaces.

7. Frontages should be interesting, attractive and designed to be part of a street or landscape space.

8. Gilston Park Estate will be a place that encourages active and healthy lifestyles for all ages.

9. Streets should be treated as vibrant and active spaces in themselves.

10. There should be a heart to each village of an appropriate size and scale which will be the centre of village life.

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The National Planning Policy Framework states that planning policies should “support an appropriate mix of uses across an area, and within larger scale sites, to minimise the number and length of journeys needed for employment, shopping, leisure, education and other activities” (paragraph 104). Planning policies and decisions should “enable and support healthy lifestyles, especially where this would address identified local health and well-being needs – for example through the provision of safe and accessible green infrastructure, sports facilities, local shops, access to healthier food, allotments and layouts that encourage walking and cycling” (paragraph. 91).

“Healthy safe and connected neighbourhoods and villages” and the “right workspaces, homes and community facilities” are principles of The Harlow and Gilston Garden Town Vision.

Policy GA1 of the adopted EHDC Local Plan sets out the following policies on village centre uses at Gilston Park Estate:

• There should be strong cultural, recreational and shopping facilities in walkable, vibrant, sociable communities (Policy GA1 III).

• There should be neighbourhood centres in accessible locations, providing local retail and community uses, including healthcare facilities to meet day to day retail and health needs (Policy GA1 V(p)). The policy’s supporting text (paragraph 11.3.5) refers to community meeting spaces, libraries and sport and recreation facilities. A range of local shops will also be provided, along with healthcare centres which will accommodate both family doctors and other health services such as dentists, pharmacies, physiotherapy and outpatient services.

• There should be a wide range of local jobs within easy commuting distance of homes (Policy GA1 III). Employment area/s within visible and accessible location/s, which provides appropriate opportunities to promote self containment and sustainability (Policy GA1 V (q)). The policy’s supporting text (paragraph 11.3.6) describes this as including small scale office in form of either a business park or distributed across village centres.

3 Relevant planning policy and guidance


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The Harlow and Gilston Garden Town Design Guide states that “each village should be designed to have an individual identity and character” and “a village centre (food shop, pub/restaurant/café, community use) should be provided in each of the villages, at the nexus of local routes”.

The Concept Framework, developed by the Gilston Area landowners with the Council and local community, sets out the following 13 key development objectives to ensure that the Garden City principles are embedded into all future development:1. Creating distinctive and balanced communities2. Maintaining Distinctiveness and managing the

impacts of development on existing villages3. Delivering a wide choice of quality homes4. Well connected to, but distinctive from, Harlow5. Promoting healthy communities6. Promoting sustainable travel7. Creating walkable neighbourhoods8. Promoting high quality design9. A protected and enhanced landscape and a

network of greenspaces10. Protecting and enhancing natural assets11. Protecting and enhancing heritage assets12. Engaging local communities13. Ensuring the phased delivery of necessary

infrastructure to meet the needs arising from the development

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4 Placemaking principles and objectives

This Strategy responds to the policy context and identifies twelve placemaking principles that underpin the approach to the delivery of Gilston Park Estate’s villages.

1Sustainable movement12

Accessible development

10Digital

masterplan

3Education and

learning

4Economy and opportunity

7Art and culture

2Health

5Heritage

6Landscapes

8Housing

9Governance

11Young people

Placemaking strategy


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1. Transport Connections and Sustainable Travel – an integrated sustainable transport network where walking, cycling and public transport are the most attractive options

2. Healthy Communities and Lifestyles – promoting health, independence and well being in the design of the village environment

3. A Place to Grow and Learn – delivering education facilities in accessible locations, and designing the built and green environment to deliver and stimulate a variety of senses and feelings

4. Creating Prosperity and Opportunity – providing a wide range of job opportunities and services within easy access and supporting local supply chains

5. Embracing the Historical Environment – enhancing and positively integrating the historic environment

6. An Outstanding Natural Environment – enhancing the natural environment through biodiversity, low carbon approaches and ensuring client change resilience

7. Art and Culture – integration of art and cultural into all aspects of the built and green environment

8. Homes for All – a mix of house sizes and types to cater for all including those most in need

9. Empowering the Community and Ensuring its Future – deliver long term stewardship of land and facilities, and capturing land value for the benefit of the community

10. Facing the Future – creating a sustainable and digitally responsive place

11. Young people – embedding youth and play provision, and physical activity, as an inherent part of the place

12. Accessible development – inclusive design of the built and green environment, responsive to the needs of all ages.

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Sustainable Movement and connectivity

Transport and movement within and across Gilston Park Estate is critical to the success of the project. The Gilston Park Estate Transport Strategy sets out the overarching transport vision for the project which aims to provide residents with the opportunity to undertake many day-to-day activities within the site and have a choice of sustainable transport modes for travel within and outside the site. To minimise the need to travel, and ensure as many trip as possible are undertaken by sustainable modes, it is essential to embed the correct behavioural activities and experiences within the built environment. The placemaking of Gilston Park Estate responds to this challenge in a number of ways including:

• Day to day activities on site – The mix of uses within Gilston Park Estate distributed across a series of villages, each served by a village centre, provides residents with significant opportunities to undertake many of their day to day activities within the site. In particular this includes the great majority of primary and secondary education trips, as well as some trips to local retail, leisure, employment, recreation and community activities. In addition, the encouragement of home working through high quality digital connections and the opportunity for co-working hubs will further reduce travel needs. It is expected that between 30% and 50% of trips can be contained within Gilston Park Estate during peak periods.

• Walkable Neighbourhoods and Cycleways – Gilston Park Estate provides a comprehensive network of pedestrian and cycle routes both within the site and to key destinations beyond. A range of routes types are provided to cater for different users including segregated cycle and pedestrian routes adjacent to roads for ‘commuter’ activity and shared surfaces or dedicated pedestrian/cycle routes away from roads for leisure use. All villages are highly accessible from one another within less than 15 minutes. All routes are designed to feel safe and secure with appropriate separation from vehicles, natural surveillance from the new built form and well lit.

5 Village life

Image to follow


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• “Walking School bus” – The concept of the walking school bus will be utilised at Gilston Park Estate. A walking bus has the benefit of reducing private vehicle movements and promoting healthy lifestyles, but it is also seen as an important way to establish and maintain social community cohesion, especially in the early phases of the development when the new community is beginning to form.

• Cycle hire – we will work with the Garden Town to facilitate delivery of a Garden Town wider cycle hire scheme.

• Public Transport – For those longer journeys there will be a Sustainable Transport Corridor which provides a high-quality route for buses with segregation from and priority over general traffic. The widened Central Stort Crossing supports additional lanes dedicated to buses. This will provide rapid access to Harlow Town railway station, Harlow town centre and the enterprises zones and other employment destinations.

• Transport Hub – The Village 1 centre will

accommodate a Transport Hub which will support the transition between different modes of travel. The Transport Hub is an important element for the “last mile” of a journey, enabling an individual to seamlessly move from, say public transport to a bicycle (either privately owned or through the cycle hire scheme), or potentially the use of “stackable” electric vehicles. The Hub will be located within the village centre alongside is other activity, such as cafés, local employment, local retail etc. It can also act as the location of a Community Concierge where people can have goods delivered for collection.

• Personal Travel Planning – Gilston Park Estate will commit to employing a Sustainable Travel Champion initially which may give way to more technological based solutions.

• Digital Interventions – Gilston Park Estate is committed to positively engaging with technological advances, in particular embracing digital interventions that can improve travel habits. For example a digital App could be created for Gilston Park Estate (or the wider Garden Town) that provides an integrated travel planning and payment system allowing users to make informed decisions about their journeys and seamlessly pay for their transport choices. Other interventions would include dynamic ride sharing services (allowing drivers to post journeys they are planning to make and advertise free seats for those travelling in a similar direction), autonomous public transport systems and smart delivery services.

Key documents:

More details on these aspects of Gilston Park Estate can be found within the following application documents:

• Sustainable Movement Strategy;

• Design and Access Statement;

• Development Specification and Parameter Plans.

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A healthier way of life “Too often we intervene too late in the pathway to ill health and forget that health starts where we live, learn, work and play. Research has shown that the key to foster good health is to build preventative services which address these wider determinants of health and take care of our families, our schools, our workplaces, and our playgrounds and parks”

“Intervening in the Social Determinants of Health to Improve Priority Public Health Conditions and Reduce Health Inequalities”

A central pillar in the design and philosophy of Gilston Park Estate has been to ensure it delivers healthy communities and protects the wellbeing of its residents.

We know that as a society we face many health challenges. Some are often linked to lifestyle – childhood obesity, diabetes, cardiac disease, cancers. Others such as dementia an inevitable consequence of longevity. Loneliness, depression and isolation can occur at any age.

Where and how we live has a lasting impact on our physical and mental health from the day we are born; if not before. Just as the original Garden Cities and New Towns were about offering a better, healthier way of life so our planning of Gilston can help make healthy living the default option.

Harlow currently has a significant burden of ill-health and as East Hertfordshire’s population ages the health of its population has become increasingly challenging. More than a third of Harlow residents and 26% of East Hertfordshire residents do not do the required level of regular physical activity to maintain general health.

Public Health England has undertaken a study of the impact of increased physical activity on the caseload of key diseases. Within Harlow and East Hertfordshire, an estimated 130 deaths every year could be avoided if all people aged between 40 and 79 participated in some form of physical activity for half an hour, five times a month. Places for People recognise the importance of placemaking in ensuring the health lifestyles and wellbeing for all, and the following placemaking interventions are proposed at Gilston Park Estate:

• Promoting physical activity – Physical activity is facilitated and encouraged at all stages of life through the promotion of active travel ie walking and cycling. The six new villages are designed to maximise opportunities for active travel, not only for recreation but also embedded within everyday living. Gilston Park Estate offers the ability to walk or cycle to access local shops and services for day to day purposes, primary or secondary schools, health facilities, or bus stops which provide rapid, efficient public transport access to Harlow train station, town centre and employment destinations. Furthermore, the easy access to open countryside will be enhanced to accommodate a series of recreation activities including jogging routes, cycle paths, woodland walks etc.

• Providing contact with nature – The villages will each respond to the local topographical, historic and ecological context. As a result many of the on-site assets are positively integrated into the development to enable residents and visitors to interact and enjoy the beauty of the site. This includes local ecological parks which retain ecologically important hedges, banks and other


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routeways to support the site’s wildlife; retention of veteran trees as part of heritage trails; ecological trails; using the tributaries and swales created on site to deliver positive interaction with water; and woodland plantation within Eastwick Wood Park.

• Promoting positive social interaction – The village centres will provide a natural focus of interaction but in addition each village will accommodate a series of incidental spaces that will facilitate incidental play and relaxation. A bespoke open space and public realm strategy has been created for Gilston Park Estate which ensures that each home is within a minimum walking distance of each type of space. Full details are set out in the Landscape & Open Space Strategy.

• Positive community identity – a positive community identity is directly associated with health and wellbeing, which is linked to both a sense of place (ie physical attributes) and a sense of belonging (ie social aspects). We will maximise opportunities for people to not only come together but to take pride in their village as a place to live, work and visit. Positive community interventions will include place naming of neighbourhoods and streets informed by local heritage and landscape context, interpretation of historic landscape and cultural heritage, memorable and inspiring design, and areas of local townscape significance around village centres.

• Access to healthy foods and productive landscapes – Gilston Park Estate will provide measures which improve awareness of, and access to, healthy food and productive landscapes. In particular Gilston Park Estate accommodates community spaces such as allotments which encourage people to be outdoors and engaging with fresh, sustainable food as well as markets for local produce to be sold.

Key documents:


• Health and Wellbeing Strategy;


• Landscape and Green Infrastructure Report;


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A place to grow and learn

Gilston Park Estate will play an integral role in establishing and supporting the new community at its start, and long into the future.

Each school will provide a heart for a neighbourhood, creating the space to bring people together to achieve common goals for their children and their communities. But you are never too late to learn and we will foster opportunities for all of the community to adopt that mantra. Whether developing new skills or technologies, a weekly exercise class or arts based activity, we will help curate these activities and embed them into the Gilston way of life.

The education related placemaking attributes of Gilston Park Estate include:

• A school place for every child – Gilston Park Estate will provide enough school places on-site for every child living on-site who wants one.

• A core part of village life – Primary Schools will be located within village centres where they will foster vibrancy and activity, be walkable from all new homes, and provide a heart for new neighbourhoods both within and outside of school hours.

• Phasing – Primary school places will be on-site from the very start of development so children can go to a local school from the September after they move in. The first schools to be delivered, in Village 1, will set the tone for the development and be part of an integrated design approach which links with the Village Centre and open space.

The first schools will provide a foundation to the creation of village life, enabling new and existing residents to socialise and interact.

• Design – School buildings will be designed and built to the highest standards, taking into account both innovative ideas and best practice from experienced architects and contractors, as well as conforming to Village Masterplans and Village Design Guides. Designs and materials will be chosen to promote wellbeing.

• Community Resource – The school buildings and facilities will be shared resources, used by the community wherever possible.

Key documents:


• Education and Learning Strategy;




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Creating opportunity and prosperity

Aligned with Garden City principles residents of the Gilston Park Estate will have access to a wide range of local jobs within easy commuting distance of their homes.

• Strategic Location – Gilston Park Estate lies in the middle of one of the most important economic sub-regions in the UK. Located between Cambridge and London productivity is significantly higher in this sub region than in other parts of the country.

Recognising this opportunity, the Harlow Enterprise Zone was established providing over 50 ha of development opportunity focusing on medical technologies, advanced manufacturing and information communication technology working to promote Harlow within the science, technology and medical sectors.

Harlow Science Park is located within the Enterprise Zone and will provide affordable space for start up businesses, research and development facilities and access to a wide industry network. Anglia Ruskin University has chosen to locate one of the three proposed Med Tech Business Innovation Centre at Harlow Science Park providing one of the largest health innovations spaces in the UK.

In a significant move, Public Health England is moving its London head office operations to Harlow. The campus is expected to be operational in 2024.

This investment sets Harlow apart as an emerging leader in the science and medical sector, and will drive the regeneration of the town.

As recognised in paragraph 11.1.3 of the East Herts District Plan residents of Gilston Park Estate will have access to these substantial job opportunities in Harlow and will help support and sustain the emerging enterprise zone.

The high quality walking and cycling routes and rapid public transport facilities provided within the Gilston Park Estate will ensure that residents can access these jobs by accessible means. But there are other opportunities we can offer.

• Village Centre Employment Space – The villages will accommodate small scale local employment space that supports small and medium sized firms. The precise form of the employment space is to be determined at the Village Masterplan and Reserved Matter Application stages, however, Places for People has committed to provide the following:

• Relocation premises for the existing businesses located in the Eastwick Lodge Business Park (subject to commercial agreement) which may equate to c.1,500sqm (to be confirmed)

• Deliver up to 4,000sqm including a feature building within Village 1 of flexible employment space to act as a hub for local employment activities.

• Office floorspace of up to 3,000sqm across Village 2 comprising a range of sizes.

• Studio space of 1,500sqm in Village 4 including to support local artists and cultural/art functions.

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• Following the completion of the above and occupation of 3,000 homes within Gilston Park Estate, undertake a need assessment to establish the demand for further employment floorspace within the development up to 5,000sqm to be delivered within the site.

• Other Employment Opportunities – Gilston Park Estate will create c1,000 further jobs in the retail and service industries and at the schools, nurseries and health centres delivered on site. In addition, the project will generate a substantial number of construction jobs.

• Training and Apprenticeships – Places for

People are at the forefront of construction innovation and are one of just a few major developers progressing custom-build, self-build and modular homes. Places for People is committed to using the scale and longevity of the GIlston Park Estate development to drive forward innovation in construction, training and skills development for the 21st century.

Key documents:


• Inclusive Growth Strategy;


• Development Specification and Parameter Plans..


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Embracing the historical environment

Gilston Park Estate has embraced the historic environment as a positive feature to be integrated into the development, rather than it being seen as a constraint. The following placemaking principles are embedded within the design of the Gilston Park Estate:

• Respecting existing villages – The application proposals have carefully considered the relationship of the new villages to the existing villages, in particular Gilston and Eastwick. The Parameter Plans contained in the Development Specification that is submitted in support of the application commit to the inclusion of green corridors which act as buffers and green lungs between Gilston Park Estate and the existing villages. The design of the corridors and their precise width and configuration will be subject to detailed design at the Village Masterplan and Reserved Matter Application stages, which will be undertaken alongside the existing communities.

• Integrating and Improving St Mary’s Church – St Mary’s Church is a Grade I listed building. Careful consideration has been given the potential siting of new development and any impact on it’s setting. Detailed analysis has been undertaken on key views to and from the heritage asset and guidance has been sought from Historic England. As a result the Parameter Plans have been configured to control the proximity of new development adjacent to the Church. A ‘sensitivity’ zone has been defined around the Church and a series of design parameters are specified which will ensure that any development responds. The approach adopted will ensure the Church is

integrated into the development in an appropriate manner and the residents of Gilston Park Estate will add to the Church’s congregation, ensuring its long term sustainability. Furthermore, the application commits to delivering various direct enhancements to the Church including running water.

• Embracing key site features – The application proposals directly respond to the location and value of on-site heritage assets. The approach is set out in detail in the Heritage Statement and the Historic Environment Strategy, which identifies each asset and explains how the development parameters have been specifically shaped to ensure the asset is protected and where possible enhanced. In particular the development makes a careful response to the Eastwick Schedules Monuments to the north of Village 6 and the Mount to the north of Village 1.

Key documents:


• Heritage Statement;

• Historic Environment Report;



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An outstanding natural environment

The Gilston Park Estate’s unique sense of place is partially developed through the integration of the site’s existing conditions, particularly landscape and ecology. We will deliver enhancements to the natural environment through biodiversity, low carbon approaches and ensuring climate change resilience. Specific placemaking principles include:

• Integration of the ecology – Local ecological parks are proposed that will retain ecologically important hedges, banks or other routeways which support small mammals, breeding birds, etc. These are committed within the Parameter Plans which control future Village Masterplans.

• Stort Valley – The Gilston Park Estate is committed to assisting the Stort Valley Partnership deliver an enhanced river environment for informal recreation, natural play and discovering nature. Habitat enhancements will be aimed at improving habitat connectivity including grassland, wetland, reed beds, aquatic vegetation and riparian environments.

• Network of Spaces – A bespoke network and hierarchy of spaces is proposed across Gilston Park Estate, which includes larger scale ‘community’ provision (eg country parks, community sports, community orchard and allotments, etc), ‘village’ provision (eg villages centres, village parks, village sport, etc) and localised ‘neighbourhood’ provision (eg pocket parks, neighbourhood parks, homezones, etc).

In total Gilston Park Estate will deliver around c.** ha of integrated spaces which will provide a wide range of experiences from active play to natural environments.

• Blue infrastructure – Gilston Park Estate seeks to harness and manage water by capturing, storing and recycling rain and surface water. As well as sustainably controlling water across Gilston Park Estate, it also delivers new landscapes and habitats that will contribute to character and placemaking.

Key documents:


• Natural and Historic Landscape Strategy;

• Landscape and Green Infrastructure Report;




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Arts and culture“ For people such as Ebenezer Howard, inventor of the first Garden City at Letchworth, planning was a highly creative activity that involved artists, writers, designers, architects and all sorts of creative people. It was both a technical and an artistic endeavour. The Garden City movement, inspired by the works of John Ruskin and William Morris, put great emphasis on the role of arts and culture in improving wellbeing within a co-operative approach to society. In Welwyn, the second Garden City, the first public building to open was a theatre”

‘I’d love to live there!’ Planning for culture and the arts’

TCPA

When we talk about Arts and Culture at Gilston Park Estate, we don’t just mean just a statue on a plinth in the park, although it would be wonderful to extend the Harlow Sculpture Trail across the Stort through the parklands to the historic woodlands to the north; capturing a new generation of artwork that reflects the spirit of the place.We mean embedding it into everyday life and how we experience the place.

The design of streets and spaces across Gilston Park Estate will integrate public art and culture into everyday life. This critical part of placemaking will ensure that the uniqueness and fine grain is delivered in the design of the new place, inspiring a sense of belonging and ownership. This will manifest itself in the design of Gilston Park Estate in a number of ways including:

• Working with local artists and groups – we have a rich cultural heritage such as the Gibberd Gallery, Henry Moore Foundation and Parndon Mill all close by to take inspiration from and help in the curation of our arts strategy

• Community Art projects and events – To add diversity and interest to one of the smaller centres, Places for People wish to investigate establishing regular community art exhibitions. This will not only bring art and design into the development, but will also enable active participation of the local community and local artists.

• Cultural Heritage – Gilston Park Estate will embrace the historic culture of the site in the design of the villages and the surrounding open spaces. For example Hunsdon Airfield Country Park will celebrate the exposed open horizons of the plateau on which the park sits. Wide grassland strips along the lines of the former WWII airfield runways will form parkways that cut through the surrounding fields and link to the extended network of enhanced footpaths and tracks around the site to create a permanent marker of its history. We will work with local interest groups and communities to supplement this with projects such as a Talking History of the Airfield; to capture the voices of those who experienced it at the time and make sure that those memories stay with the place permanently.

• Flexible spaces – whether for recording studios,

community arts groups, local cinema screenings, Gilston Park Estate’s communities will have the opportunity to express themselves.

Key documents:


• Natural and Historic Landscape Strategy;• Landscape and Green Infrastructure Report; • Design and Access Statement;• Development Specification and Parameter Plans.

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Homes for all

Gilston Park Estate will provide a full range of homes and typologies to cater for the needs of residents at all stages of life and for all abilities. The mix of homes will be integrated across all villages in order to support mixed and balanced communities, however certain villages may lend themselves to a particular focus of mix or typology.

The delivery of the proposed homes will accord with the following placemaking principles:

• Tenure blind homes – Gilston Park Estate will provide 40% of the new homes as affordable, these will be designed to be tenure blind, such that there is no discernible difference between own occupied, private rented, affordable and social rented, and shared ownership properties.

• High quality design – Gilston Park Estate will

commit to all aspects of the built environment being designed to achieve a high quality. The planning application is supported by a Strategic Design Guide which sets out a series of design principles that will need to be demonstrated at the Village and Landscape Masterplan stage.

• Design evolution – The planning application sets a series of physical parameters that will control the design of the scheme. However, before detailed building specific Reserved Matter Applications can be approved, Village and Landscape Masterplans are to be prepared for the relevant village. The Village and Landscape Masterplan will provide more detail on how the site wide parameters established through the outline planning permission will be applied to each

village. The Village and Landscape Masterplan is to be prepared alongside the local community and other stakeholders, and will set the basis for detailed design of individual plots and spaces. The Village and Landscape Masterplan will also be supported by a Village Design Code.

• Digital Innovation – The new homes created at Gilston Park Estate will embrace technological change, especially in terms of digital innovation. This may include home automation (ie building on Smart Home and Connected Home principles to enable anything electrical in the home to be integrated), ‘Help Your Neighbour’ (ie an online service/app which connects local residents that have jobs they need doing with those who are willing to help, on a paid or voluntary basis eg an elderly person that needs to go to the supermarket), or a Community Engagement Platform (ie a one stop shop for community information and interactions).

• Density – densities will typically increase toward the village centres and at transport hubs, with lower densities at the village edges to respond to the landscape setting.

Key documents:


• Housing Strategy;• Housing Statement;• Design and Access Statement;• Development Specification and Parameter Plans.


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Empowering the community and supporting its future

Through the outline planning application Places for People will establish arrangements for the planning, development and long-term stewardship of Gilston Park Estate that will put local people at the heart of the decision making process.

This will comprise two main parts:

• Management arrangements for the development as a whole which ensure that:

• funding for maintenance and re-investment is in place;

• uplift in land values is re-invested; and

• residents and other stakeholders can be part of decision making;

• Land ownership and management arrangements which guarantee independent control of the undeveloped parkland to the north west of Gilston Park Estate.

The proposed villages form the basic building block of the Governance Strategy. Each village will have agreed infrastructure costs and amenities, and will be required, through legal agreements attached to the outline planning permission, to meet a common level of investment and standard of maintenance.

Alongside the village infrastructure will be site wide infrastructure which serves the Gilston Park Estate as a whole. This includes, for example, strategic roads, parklands, leisure facilities and secondary schools. Each village will be required to make a proportionate contribution to the cost and maintenance of this infrastructure.

Completed villages will need long term stewardship arrangements, which could be through company or trust vehicles, as will the site wide infrastructure. Residents moving in to the development will have a right to be involved in the Governance structures and will be able to influence the ongoing development, and, if they choose, become actively involved in the management of villages or specific types of infrastructure.

Key documents:

Details of the approach are outlined in the Governance Strategy submitted in support of the application.

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Supporting children and young people “I challenge all of those involved in designing and building new neighbourhoods to see them through the eyes of a child … if we can do this, we will start to build developments that have a human scale and that make walking and socialising a natural choice”.

Helen Forman, Design Officer from Leeds City Council:

In addition to providing play space for children and young people, the design of Gilston Park Estate has specifically considered the needs of teenagers and young adults who also need space and time to meet, socialise and make friends.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1991 includes three articles especially relevant to their environment:

Article 12: the right to participate in all matters that affect them.Article 15: the right to freedom of association, including to gather in public space and organise their own activities.Article 31: the right to play, rest, leisure and access cultural life.

Current planning policy across the UK recognises a need for greater inclusivity for young people. In practice, this mostly takes into account economic matters such as providing employment opportunities; transport, traffic and parking;

The social needs – and especially those of the youngest, most vulnerable citizens – can be easily brushed aside. A proliferation of playgrounds and

skateparks is an indication that children’s rights are not well understood.

Parks, woods, riverbanks and fields were the places that captured our imagination when we were children, not a few swings in an enclosed tarmacked space. We want to create an environment where children can feel safe to explore, to learn about their environment, make friends and enjoy life.

Interventions proposed at Gilston Park Estate include:

— Designing for play – the landscape led approach of Gilston Park Estate creates a variety of flexible and inclusive spaces that will cater for the needs of all children and families of all ages and abilities. Full details of the spaces proposed is set out in the Landscape and Open Space Strategy.

— Teenagers – Gilston Park Estate will accommodate social places and spaces that teenagers could access themselves where they can meet with friends and peers, and where they can have access to more challenging play and informal recreation opportunities. This may comprise ball games areas, climbing features, trampolines, outdoor stages etc. It could be a recording studio or their own café. Sheltered social space for sitting and ‘hanging out’ combined with other play and recreational facilities will increase the appeal.

The design of these spaces will be detailed at the Village Masterplan and Reserved Matter Application stages. We will work with the Council, Parishes and local groups to ensure that we engage young people at every stage of the process. Their input will be essential and invaluable in designing the places and spaces they can grow in.


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Accessible development

Adopting the Places for People mantra that “places work when they work for everyone”, Gilston Park Estate will design environments to welcome people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, including people with multi sensory impairments and complex needs.

Gilston Park Estate will accommodate a broad range of demographics and it is therefore vital that the villages work for younger and older residents as well as those with additional needs.

Placemaking principles for Gilston Park Estate that will deliver inclusive design, especially for older people and those with physical impairment, include:

• Provision of spaces that encourage inter-generational positive social interaction;

• Provision of spaces for socialising and seated exercise close to home;

• Provision of quieter spaces that allow observation of more active activity with direct participation;

• Fully DDA compliant design avoiding slippery surfaces and trip hazards;

• Audio visual aids at crossings;

• Sensory stimulation through planting design and audible sculptures and play equipment;

• Provision of gentle outdoor games such as chess, draughts boules, etc;

• Dementia friendly environments through the use of local landmarks to aid orientation.

Key documents:

These principles alongside the Strategic Design Guides will control village character and design quality, and which will be refined and developed as part of Village Masterplans and accompanying Villages Design Codes.

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Facing the future “The Village dwellers stroll from their homes to modern co-working spaces, the micro-cinema and craft brewery; the gym and wellness centre and the varied activities that make up the Village Centre in 2030. In 2019 we wondered whether it could be done”

We live in an age of ‘Disrupters’ – new ideas that can materially change how we live our lives. Over recent years think of the impact of Uber, Justeat, Airbnb, Wework on how and where we travel, eat, work, relax. How technology impacts on how we shop and interact. How changing socio-economic trends and demographic influences need to shape our homes and communities for the future.

That pace of change is set to continue and we must make sure that the villages we are creating are in the best possible shape to not only face, but embrace the future.

We can do this by following three guiding principles:1. We must offer a mixture of convenience/specialist

retailing, working/making space, entertainment, culture, community and wellbeing – focus on Experience and not just Products.

2. We need to focus on physical services, experiences and social interactions that the internet, even with advances in virtual reality, cannot provide.

3. Spaces within the Village Centre must be creatively and flexibly planned to avoid building in obsolesce from the outset by being able to adapt and change use economically and easily.

A signification proportion of this disruption will be driven by the pace and scale of technological change. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025, 1 trillion sensors will be connected to the internet, over 50% of internet traffic to homes will be from appliances and devices, and that globally, more trips will be completed by car sharing than in private cars. Technological advances in areas such as the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence will collect and analyse vast amounts of data, leading to better decision-making outcomes, increased automation and optimisation of core services in sectors including transport, energy, water, public safety and community infrastructure. Seamless, next-generation connectivity will provide increased access to the internet, enable new models of working and expand current entertainment and leisure offerings. The rise of the sharing economy and distributed trust technologies will facilitate peer-to-peer business models, which in turn will increase the utilisation of assets and drive new organisational structures.

Given that technology will become ever more entwined in our daily lives, it is critical that the Gilston Park Estate leverages the latest technological developments to achieve its overarching objectives, deliver on its guiding principles and future-proof itself for years to come.

Specifically, the Gilston Park Estate will deliver the following outcomes using a range of digital interventions:

Unparalleled convenience: Traditionally the key driver of convenience has been location. Whilst Gilston is a convenient location, digital technologies are


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adding a new dimension to convenience, allowing it to be cultivated no matter where you are.

• Home automation: integration of home appliances and systems which increases convenience and ease for residents, and improves energy efficiency as well as reduced energy waste

• Smart delivery services: e-commerce growth has fuelled an increase in ‘last mile deliveries’, where trucks and vans are the dominant transport mode. The use of delivery centres at Gilston Park Estate, potentially at the transport hub, reduces the number of vehicle movements across the site and streamlines the process of receiving parcels.

Our digital masterplan for Gilston will mirror the physical one; supporting convenience, health, opportunity, community and connectivity to ensure Gilston Park Estate has resilience for the future.

Personalised experiences: It is no longer enough to cater to broad consumer groups or provide a ‘one-size fits all’ offering. Personalisation is now key to driving interest, engagement, accessibility, satisfaction and retention. Enabled by the vast availability of data, experiences are being transformed from generic and static, to responsive and personalised.

• Travel planning: real-time information on local transportation options, allowing users to make informed decision about their journeys based on their personal preferences and constraints.

• Assisted living solutions: that use sensors, connected devices, wireless networks and software applications to discretely and transparently assist the daily lives of elderly or vulnerable people within their own homes and across the local area.

Increased social connectivity: While increased rates of social isolation and loneliness are often attributed to the prevalence of technology in everyday life, when used in the right way, digital services and platforms can facilitate the formation of new social connections and open new social and economic opportunities, supporting the creation of resilient and welcoming communities.

• Community engagement platform: that acts as a ‘one stop shop’ for community information and interactions, allowing residents to connect with those with similar interests and find activities in the local area.

• Skills and job opportunity platform: connecting those with skills or a desire to learn certain skills to job opportunities in the local area.

New levels of flexibility: The consumerisation of real-estate and the re-emergence of the sharing economy has led to increases in demand for flexible spaces. Just as the office market has embraced the use of technology to enable flexibility and maximise occupancy, the retail sector has opportunities to do the same in order to achieve the right balance between retail, leisure, hospitality and public space.

• Flexible streetscapes: that allow the same stretch of road or pavement to be used for different purposes at different times of the day or week.

• Space sharing and reprogramming solutions: that allow the reprogramming and transformation of commercial and community spaces to maximise utilisation & fulfil community needs without building new infrastructure.

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Enhanced wellbeing outcomes: The built environment has long been recognised as an important determinant of health and wellbeing. For this reason, increasing importance is being placed of the use of technology to inform urban design, augment placemaking initiatives, encourage active transport and create buildings that actively contribute to health and wellbeing outcomes.

• Smart streetlighting: The use of energy efficient LED bulbs and streetlights assets to act as ‘smart city platforms’ delivering further applications such as environmental monitoring, electric vehicle charging points and various public safety interventions.

• Facility and activity booking systems: allow users to find, book and pay for social, leisure and sports venues, enabling simple and easy access to social and physical activities.

By embracing the opportunities presented by digital technologies, Gilston Park Estate will become a vibrant and unique location for people to work, live and play, offering the convenience, connectivity and opportunities of city life, combined with the health, space and community benefits associated with city living.


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The six villages of the Gilston Park Estate will each contain a village centre. The purpose of the village centres is to:• Create a place for the community to come together

to do various things related to ‘Village Life’;• Create a place that connects people within a

village, as well as the existing communities around Gilston Park Estate;

• Create a place that promotes cohesion, inclusion, inter-generational lifestyles and provides a home for a range of services and activities that meet the day to day needs of local people – now and in the future;

• Create flexible space that can adapt over time to remain active, vibrant, relevant and at the heart of the community and the centre of ‘Village Life’.

Centres have traditionally had a focus around the provision of retail and related uses. Whilst the village centres of Gilston Park Estate will include some retail and related use floorspace, such uses will not be the primary focus of the villages. This partially reflects the significant structural shift that is currently effecting the retail market, with the growing trends toward e-commerce, but the village centres at Gilston Park Estate are intended to have a much broader range of uses and activities supporting social interaction and village life.

6 Village centres

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Each village centre will be specifically designed and curated to deliver a different character and role/function. The placemaking principles that will inform the character of each centre are set out below:

Village Centre Hierarchy:• Tier 1 (Village 1) – the largest centre offering a

diverse range of facilities and services that serve residents across Gilston Park Estate.

• Tier 2 (Villages 2 and 4 (and Village 7)) – smaller than Tier 1, these centres support the villages with a larger resident population and will include some day to day facilities, as well as some Gilston Park Estate -wide functions.

• Tier 3 (Villages 3, 5 and 6) – the smallest scale of village centres reflecting a lower resident population. Focus will be around a central area of public realm, acting as a meeting point for the local community, which may support a few select services and facilities ie pub, corner shop, etc.

Village 1 Character Principles:• It will function as the largest village centre

reflecting its proximity and ease of access to Harlow and Harlow Town Station.

• The village centre will be located at the intersection of the Primary Road and the Boulevard connection to the A414;

• The village centre will accommodate the existing businesses displaced from the Eastwick Lodge Business Park (subject to commercial discussions);

• As the first village centre delivered it will achieve a high quality outcome for design and placemaking, setting the tone for the remaining village centres;

• The village centre will provide direct and visible pedestrian and cycle links to the recreation and open space facilities within Gilston Park;

• The village centre will accommodate a primary and secondary school, potentially on a co-located site, with the first places available from the September after the first residential occupations;

• Create a hub of social infrastructure which links the school facilities with the flexible community centre and Primary Health Centre;

• The village centre will accommodate a Transport Hub which will act as a focal point for the transition between sustainable transport modes, alongside supporting services and facilities;

• Provide high quality pedestrian and cycle routes including to Lime Avenue and the pedestrian/cycle bridge adjacent to the Central Stort Crossing, which provides onward access to Harlow.

• Provide flexible premises for a range of commercial uses ie retail, leisure, cafes, restaurants, pubs, etc.

• The village centre will accommodate up to 4,000sqm, which may include a feature building, of flexible employment space to act as a hub for local employment activities;

• Active uses will be focused around a central area of public realm as a focal point for activity, meeting space and interaction;

• Potential for taller landmark buildings in appropriate locations;

• Actively promote and support meanwhile and temporary uses, especially in the early years.


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Village 2 Character Principles: • The village centre will be located off the Primary

Road, north of the intersection with the eastern access to the Eastern Stort Crossing;

• Village centre will be enclosed by the Holloway to the east, an existing hedgerow to the west and Rectory Planation to the north;

• The village centre will accommodates a primary school primarily to address the education requirements of Village 2, but also some children in Villages 1 and 3;

• The village centre is likely to be in a linear form along the Primary Road, anchored by a central area of public realm;

• The central public realm may provide opportunities to accommodate a weekly farmers market;

• Potential to accommodate a food store serving all Gilston Park Estate residents;

• Buildings will front onto the Primary Road and village square, accommodating active ground floor uses for local retail, cafes, restaurants, estate agents, hairdressers etc

• Office floorspace of up to 3,000sqm comprising a range of unit sizes;

• Actively promote and support meanwhile and temporary uses.

Village 3 Character Principles:• Small village centre created off the Primary Road,

reflecting at position in the centre hierarchy;• Informal layout of village centre with variable

building lines;• Central village space to support and encourage

community interaction and relaxation; • Limited provision of smaller commercial premises

to service the incidental needs of village residents eg corner shops, pub, hairdressers, etc;

Village 4 Character Principles:• The village centre will be located to the north of

a new linear park which follows a historic lane, linking St Mary’s Church;

• Village 4 is located in close proximity to Hunsdon Airfield Country Park and the Eastwick Country Park which will accommodate a variety of recreational facilities including horse riding, orienteering, cycle trails, walking routes, running, ropewalks, nature trails etc. The village centre will accommodate services and facilities that support this recreational focus;

• The village centre will accommodate a Primary School, which is envisaged to be located off the village square;

• The village square will also accommodate a limited number of commercial premises to serve the day to day needs of residents;

• Studio space of around 1,500sqm;• Village 4 is anticipated to accommodate a

retirement development as a result the services and facilities in the village centre are likely to reflect the needs of that demographic. Furthermore, the design of public realm and green spaces will have a particular emphasis on inclusive design;

• The village centre will be designed to protect the sensitive views of St Mary’s Church and positively integrate the facility into the new community;

• The village centre will provide links to Gilston Fields (south of St Mary’s Church) which accommodates sports facilities, envisaged to be a cricket pitch and pavilion, that reflects the character and slower pace of life compared to say Village 1.

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Village 5 Character Principles:• As the smallest village in Gilston Park Estate, the

village centre will be focused around a village square/green acting a meeting place for social interaction;

• The village centre will be in close proximity to the secondary school and the leisure centre, and will benefit from passing activity associated with these uses;

• Limited provision of smaller commercial premises to service the incidental needs of village residents eg corner shops, pub, butchers, hairdressers, etc.

Village 6 Character Principles:• The village centre is located to the north of the

village providing strong links to the Parklands to the north;

• The strong relationship of the village to the open landscape will be reflected in the character of the village centre which will promote active outdoor activities such as horse-riding, sculpture trail, agriculture and local food production, etc

• The village centre has reserve capacity for a primary school is required as a result of minoring child yields;

• Limited provision of small commercial premises to service the incidental needs of village residents eg corner shops, pub, butchers, hairdressers, etc.

The key requirement to achieve character differentiation across the villages has been reflected in the Strategic Design Guide, alongside other principles.

The design of the village centres will be considered at the Village Masterplan stage, and ultimately within Reserved Matters Applications, having regard to the above placemaking principles and the design parameters set out in the Strategic Design Guide.


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The outline planning application contains a framework of controls that will form the basis for the detailed design of the villages. In particular the Development Specification, Parameter Plans and Strategic Design Guide will inform the Villages Masterplans and Landscape Masterplan, and subsequently the Reserved Matter Applications. The planning delivery approach provides flexibility to continue to respond to changing trends and opportunities over time as more information on the villages materialises, and following further detailed engagement with the local communities and key stakeholders.

However, Places for People recognise that the delivery of the villages will require careful curation and management, especially in the early years of the formulation of a village centre. There are three evolutionary stages each Village must go through to successfully grow:

7 Place curation: growing the community

ANIMATE

CURATE ACTIVATE

Places for People will make the following commitments to ensure that the vision and principles set out in this Placemaking Strategy are achieved:

• Design Guide – A commitment to design the villages in accordance with the Strategic Design Guide;

• Interim Uses – Occupiers will be curated to animate streets and encourage community interaction. Places for People will be actively involved in this process. Potential strategies include: — Relocation of existing shops that have an

existing customer base, such as the cycle shop at Eastwick Lodge Business Park into Village 1.

— Meanwhile and pop-up uses on short and flexible terms.

— Monitoring success, taking on board feedback building in lessons learned.

— Tailored commercial terms, where needed, to ensure we have the right mix of uses including business start-ups;

— A range of business support to ensure early provision of facilities and continued vibrancy.

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Early, curated uses are likely to fit into three categories: • relocated existing uses and commercial uses that

are, at least in part, financially self-sustaining;

• community and commercial uses that will need financial support in the early years; and

• meanwhile uses that may start in temporary locations/buildings and then move to new areas over time, or move to permanent premises in the long term.

For meanwhile uses to be effective, they may need support on meeting their regulatory requirements including any planning permissions, licences and rates payments that will need to made. Places for People will provide a package of support to help new pop-ups to understand and meet these requirements where needed.

• Future proofing – Gilston Park Estate is being designed to be flexible and adaptable to changing future trends. This is particularly the case for the village centre floorspace which will be designed such that it is easily adaptable to enable its conversion to a range of uses as may be necessary.

• Technology enabled – adopting the Smart Cities principles, Gilston Park Estate will be designed to embrace technological change and support digital innovation that will improve resident and visitor experience of the new place.

• Stewardship and governance – Places for People has committed to establish a governance structure that will ensure the long term stewardship of Gilston Park Estate. Places for People may endow the governance structure with assets such as the village centre commercial floorspace which would a form of income that can be utilised as part of the long term management arrangements to maintain community assets.


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The outline planning application for Gilston Park Estate is accompanied by a suite of application documents. A number of documents have been submitted for formal approval, as identified below. Other documents are submitted in support of the application which consists of ‘strategies’ that provide a topic specific explanation of the approach to development at Gilston Park Estate, and ‘technical’ documents that analyse the compliance of the proposals from a planning policy and guidance context. The strategies draw on information from a variety of the technical documents as graphically presented below.

Outline Planning Application

Documents for ApprovalPlanning application forms and certificates

Application Drawings

Development Specification

Strategic Design Guide

Supporting Documents

Strategies TechnicalPlacemaking Strategy

Sustainability Strategy

Sustainable Movement Strategy

Natural and Historic Landscape Strategy

Housing Strategy

Health and Wellbeing Strategy

Inclusive Growth Strategy

Governance Strategy

Education and Learning Strategy

Environmental Statement

Planning Statement

Landscape and Green Infrastructure Report

Historic Environment Report

Housing Statement

Statement of Community Involvement

Infrastructure Delivery Plan

Design and Access Statement

Planning Permission

• Application Drawings

• Development Specification

• Strategic Design Guide

• Environmental Statement Mitigation

• S106 Agreement / Planning Conditions

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