Only the best

IN RESPONSE to Diana Heywood’s letter in last week’s paper (July 12) on the design of the Chesterton site, Bathurst Development Limited and their professional team whole heartedly agree that the significance of the proposals demands the very best design and placemaking skills.

The new homes, and other uses envisaged, should be distinctive and appealing to those people who will want to live there and set in a framework of truly usable and fantastic public open spaces and parks. Mediocrity simply isn’t an option.

We are currently working on the site-wide and detailed design codes for the scheme and these set the bar in terms of the quality of the scheme.

Future Reserved Matters Applications will have to comply with these codes helping again helping to maintain design and build standards.

We are also committed to creating a new neighbourhood with a clear identity, one that is coherent and can grow as a legible place people will be proud to live in: again, the next step of design coding is fundamental to achieving this.

Across the lifetime of this development there will be opportunities for different architects and designers to work at different scales.

We want to encourage variety and innovation within the framework set by the design codes and the outline planning permission: design competitions may well be undertaken for specific areas or buildings, but we have a lot of work to do first to enshrine our objectives for a landscape-led framework within which carefully considered detailed design can then take place.

We also wish to clarify that development is not taking place on any existing allotments, rather the proposed new neighbourhood will include a further 1.7 acres of new allotments.

Graeme Phillips

Partner

JTP