Ensleigh North MOD Environmental Statement Addendum

Non Technical Summary| August 2014 | NPA 10630 SPG |

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The site is located on the northern edge of Bath approximately 2 miles north of the city centre, see Figure 1. The site is a Ministry of Defence (MOD) administrative site, part of which has been vacated in advance of the proposed development. It is bounded by Lansdown Road to the south and Granville Road to the east, both of which provide access to the site, although the Lansdown Road access is no longer in use. The area is skirted with natural, agricultural and recreational hinterland to the north, east and west.

The site comprises a range of one and two storey structures originally constructed in the late 1930s. Their original intended use was a wartime hospital, though they were never used as such. The buildings were instead used by the Admiralty during the war and have continued to be used as offi ces by the MOD.

The site lies within the Bath World Heritage Site and is located adjacent to the Cotswold Area of

Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the Bath Green Belt and Bath Conservation Area. There are no ecological designations on site, however, there are nine locally designated Sites of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI) (of county importance) within 1km of the Site. These are designated for their habitat value (including species-rich grassland and broad-leaved woodland).

There is no pedestrian or cycle access to the site, although the site is well served by local buses. The nearest convenience store is located on Julien Road some 2km to the south of the site.

There are several schools and playing fi elds in the vicinity of the site and also several sports clubs. The Grade II listed Ensleigh House is located on Granville Road adjacent to the site and Beckford’s Tower, a Grade II listed tower, is located within 200m to the west of the site.

An Environmental Statement (ES) has been prepared on behalf of Linden Homes and Bloor Homes to accompany a full planning application for a proposed development which comprises 180 residential units, a neighbourhood retail store of up to 306m2, associated highways works, infrastructure and public open space and an outline planning application for a 72 bed Extra Care Facility. The application was submitted to Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) in April 2014. It constitutes an Environmental Statement under Schedule 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011. The ES sets out the fi ndings of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) work undertaken by the

applicant and their team, and forms part of the environmental information to be used by B&NES to determine the outcome of the planning application. A Non Technical Summary provided a summary of the ES in non technical language.Following the submission of the planning application and the statutory consultation period, subsequent discussions with B&NES identifi ed that some changes were required to the proposed development shown on the planning drawings. An ES Addendum has therefore been produced in order to update the ES in line with the information shown on the planning drawings.

The Site and its Surroundings

Introduction

Figure 1: Site Location Plan. 0 1km0.5N

Site Boundary

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The site is allocated within the adopted B&NES Local Plan for employment uses as it was in use by the MOD at the time of writing. The Local Plan does allow for sites no longer required for business purposes to be considered for other uses. The Core Strategy allocates the site for residential development. As a residential site, it would positively contribute to the delivery of the 5 year housing supply required to meet B&NES national statutory requirement under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). In 2012 B&NES adopted a series of Concept Statements for the MOD sites in Bath which were programmed for disposal in 2012/13. Although the statement has not statutory weight, it sets out the Council’s aspirations for the site.

Alternative sites have not been considered as the site is allocated as set out above. The site is owned by IM Properties who have agreed to lease part of the site back to the MOD. The MOD is expected to fully

vacate the site by 2018.

The site has been through several design iterations. The selected layout has sought to balance the development requirements and quantum, including that set out in the B&NES Concept Statement whilst seeking to minimise the potential for adverse impacts on the character of the landscape and on visual receptors.

The Concept Statement provided a base for the proposed development which was developed into a masterplan submitted to B&NES as part of the pre-application submission in 2013. Following comments from this submission the masterplan was revised, and the fi nal scheme is shown in Figure 2.

Need and Alternatives

Figure 2: Proposed Scheme Layout.

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A Scoping Report was submitted to B&NES in February 2014 which set out the proposed scope of the EIA. Based on the conclusions of the Screening Opinion received from B&NES in January 2014, the scope of the ES was narrowed to include the potential Landscape and Visual impacts of the proposed development, including an assessment of the potential visual impacts on heritage assets.

The Scoping Opinion agreed with the topics to be covered in the ES however it widened the scope

of the heritage assessment beyond what could be provided as part of the LVIA, therefore an additional chapter was included in the ES, Chapter 8 Heritage Assets (including Archaeology).

All other environmental issues have been scoped out of the ES, however assessments of Transport, Flood Risk and Site Drainage and Ecology have been completed and will be submitted alongside the planning application as standalone reports.

A development of this nature requires a comprehensive and meaningful consultation and community engagement process. Consultees and the public have been involved throughout the process in a number of different ways including meetings, presentations, public consultation events, through social media and through a local community information newsletter.

Scope

Consultation and Community Engagement

The proposed development is for 180 residential units, including a 72 unit Extra Care Facility, a neighbourhood retail store of up to 306m2, associated highways works, infrastructure and public open space. The Extra Care Facility is considered in outline only and will be subject to a reserved matters application in the future.

The site is being released for development by the MOD over a 5 year timescale therefore the site will be developed in a phased manner. The most westerly area of the site, adjacent to Lansdown Road, will continue to be operated by the MOD until at least 2018.

Demolition work on site has begun in accordance with a decision notice from B&NES.

The houses on site will range from 2-3 storey, 2-5 bed terraced, semi-detached and detached dwellings. The 72 apartments in the Extra Care Facility would be 1 and 2 bedroom. Three 2 bedroom fl ats would be provided above the neighbourhood retail store. 40% of the dwellings on site would be affordable homes.

The materials used on site will complement those used on existing and newly built buildings within

the area, including Granville Road, Lansdown Road, Colliers Lane and the village of Charlecombe.

Areas of formal and informal open space and a community growing area are provided on site. This includes a community garden, a play area and a green which are located within the centre of the site. The community growing area will allow residents the opportunity to grow their own food.

The site would be opened to public access for the fi rst time with pedestrian routes linking to public footpaths outside the site. Cycling would also be encouraged on site with each property provided with cycle storage. The site is well served by local buses and the Travel Plan encourages sustainable travel with measures such as bus tickets and travel packs for new residents.

Access will be provided via a new junction onto Lansdown Road and a new junction on to Granville Road. Some of the properties along Granville Road will have private or shared driveway access. The streets have been designed to reduce vehicle speeds and the site will be fully accessible to all service and emergency vehicles.

Description of the Development

View from Lansdown Road, south of junction with Granville Road, looking north at the site.

The Site Granville Road

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Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment

The assessment provides a baseline description of the existing landscape character at a national, regional and local scale and a baseline description of areas from which the site can be viewed. The landscape character and visual baseline encompass townscape attributes and include the historic associations of the site.

The Site’s existing landscape consists of largely single storey MOD buildings, associated parking, a 3m high chain link fence and a few semi mature tree groups. It is located on a gently sloping plateaux. The site is bordered by Granville Road and the adjacent residential properties, Lansdown Road a key approach to Bath, Lansdown playing fi elds, Sopers Wood and agricultural land. It is located with the City of Bath World Heritage Site, adjacent to the Cotswold AONB and in the locality of Lansdown Cemetery and Beckford’s Tower Registered Park and Garden. The general overall condition of the landscape is moderate, the sensitivity ranges from low in respect of the existing form of development on site to high in respect of the settings of the designated areas. The overall sensitivity to change is judged as moderate.

Visually the site is contained by the intervening built form and mature vegetation to the south west and west on the Lansdown Ridge. Local views to the site include those along Lansdown Road, Granville Road and a small number of public rights of way. Distant views are limited to elevated locations to the south and east of the site and across the plateau landscape

from the north-west. The AONB, WHS and heritage designations (see Figure 3) heighten the sensitivity of certain of viewpoints, including public rights of way north of the site within the AONB, two views from the registered park and garden and in distant views where the edges of the site are just visible on the skyline as part of the setting of WHS. The sensitivity to the proposed change ranges from low to high in relation to the value of particular viewpoints and the type of change perceived.

The potential landscape and visual impacts from the development include the introduction of 2-3 storey residential buildings within the footprint of the existing MOD development, incorporation of areas of green space, tree and hedgerow planting across and along boundaries of the site, the removal of the site security fence and the introduction of stone walling. Construction impacts include the installation of tree protection fencing, site enabling works and compound set up, demolition of existing buildings, tree removal, ground works and building activities. The design actively seeks to minimise potential adverse impacts through the careful layout and distribution of the residential buildings and the building heights across the Site, through structured tree and hedgerow planting and through the use of locally found materials and fi nishes. A number of specifi c mitigation measures are incorporated into the design to counteract visual effects. These include the set back of houses from the boundary along Lansdown Road; the positioning of the Extra Care Facility within the site away from the Lansdown Road approach to Bath; retention of

Environmental Issues

Visualisation of the proposed scheme in the summer at year 1 from Lansdown Road on the junction with Granville Road.

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wide verges and new evergreen hedgerow and tree planting; mixed evergreen and deciduous tree planting and hedgerow planting along the boundaries of the site.

Other developments with planning permission along Granville Road have been assessed in combination with the proposed development. These developments cause a low level increase in the density of residential development in the area and the proposed development in addition to these presents a minor level effect on the landscape character of this defi ned area. Areas from which the combined developments

can potentially be seen are limited, in these views the consented schemes provide partial screening to the proposed development.

Overall, the level of effect of the fully implemented scheme incorporating mitigation, on landscape character is slight positive and the visual effect is slight negative, although some positive effects on the visual character of the site are recognised. The effects are not considered to be signifi cant.

Figure 3: Landscape and Heritage Designations Plan.

Round BarrowsRoman Camp

Univallate Hillfort

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CommentsLinden Homes and Bloor Homes would welcome any comments on the environmental aspects of the proposals, and these should be sent to:

GVASt Catherines Court

Berkeley PlaceBristol

BS8 1BQ

This ES is made available for viewing at B&NES offi ces and will be available to view online at http://www.bathnes.gov.uk. Copies can be purchased, on request, from the above address and a charge of £70 for a hard copy and £5 for a CD will be made to cover the costs of reproduction.

Heritage Assets

The assessment identifi es four categories of heritage assets that might be subject to signifi cant environmental effects arising from the proposed development of the Ensleigh North MOD site (the Site) on the Lansdown Plateau, fronting Lansdown Road in Bath. These are:

• The Site

• Heritage Assets Close to the Site (including Ensleigh House, Beckford’s Tower and Lansdown Cemetery and Grounds and the cemetery entrance Gates, Piers, Walls and Railings)

• Distant Heritage Assets (a range of historic sites and parks)

• Strategic Heritage Assets (Bath Conservation Area and the City of Bath World Heritage Site)

The assessment describes these heritage assets, their sensitivity and the baseline position in terms of the heritage value of the Site and its relationship to the other heritage assets.

The Site itself is of low to moderate sensitivity in respect of potential below ground archaeological remains. Those heritage assets close to the site are primarily of high sensitivity, while the more distant heritage assets are of low to moderate sensitivity. The strategic heritage assets of Bath Conservation Area and the City of Bath World Heritage Site are of moderate and high sensitivity respectively.

The current development on the site creates an urban environment of poor quality. It consists of single storey, fl at-roofed offi ce buildings set out in a regimented fashion behind a concrete post and

chain-link/barbed wire perimeter fence. Its overall character is utilitarian. This environment will be transformed through redevelopment to establish a built environment of far greater quality and character.

During the construction phase, the development will give rise to temporary moderate negative effects in respect of the heritage assets close to the site and temporary slight negative effects in relation to the Conservation Area and World Heritage Site.

The completed development will bring largely positive effects in respect of the heritage assets close to the site, with a moderate negative effect on views towards the Site from Lansdown Cemetery, becoming slight negative as the proposed tree planting matures, and a negligible effect on the cemetery entrance gates, piers, walls and railings.

The effect on more distant heritage assets is assessed as neutral, by virtue of the moderating effects of distance, existing buildings and vegetation that intervene in the views and the mitigating effect of the substantial landscape planting that is incorporated within the development proposal.

As a result of the removal of the poor quality urban environment that exists on the site and its replacement with a residential environment of high quality, with character and a sense of distinctiveness appropriate to the location, the effect on the Conservation Area and the World Heritage Site is assessed as a positive one.

The cumulative effect of the development proposal for the Site, in combination with other adjacent development permitted on Granville Road, has been considered and it is concluded that this does not materially alter the assessed environmental effects in respect of heritage assets, as outlined above.