PLANNING CAPABILITIES WELL INFORMED

Bidwells is a market leader in providing planning services, offering clients knowledge of and access to, some of the most interesting markets with the highest growth potential in the UK.

Our planning team is among the largest in the UK. We offer a full scope of fully integrated specialist skills demanded by the modern planning system, working closely with Heritage, Socio-Economics, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Urban Design Studio.

We work in a multi-disciplinary environment with the wider firm, giving us unparalleled insight into the dynamics of commercial, residential and rural development. As a result, we are able to take a commercial view on all aspects of the planning process which clients find hugely valuable.

Our partner-led service will deliver the market insight, industry expertise and strategies you require, bringing these together for your benefit, whilst also keeping an eye on the basics to make sure we get these right and deliver a smooth planning service.We act for more landowners along Cambridge–Milton Keynes–Oxford Growth Corridor than any other real estate advisor.

Our clients range from major house builders to leisure organisations, developers to universities and housing associations to private investors.

Services we offer• Planning Advisory• Heritage• Urban Design Studio• Socio-Economics• Environmental Impact Assessment

DARWIN GREENBidwells were appointed to act as lead planning consultant for the Darwin Green site in the north of Cambridge to secure planning permissions for their first site and working on the outline planning application of circa 1,000 units for sites two and three.

Planning AdvisoryWe take a tailored approach to each project, working with you to truly understand your end goal. We have established a planning team that will provide our clients with sound and robust advice drawing upon awareness of commercial, physical and political factors.

We can complement your in-house resources or act as your own team, embedded in your business. Whichever approach we adopt, our first priority is to fully understand what our client is seeking to achieve and to provide the best advice to achieve it. If necessary, we can act as ‘expert witness’ or represent your interests in subsequent negotiations.

• Development plan promotion• Planning applications• Planning appeals• Expert witness• Stakeholder engagement• Site appraisals• Planning policy advice• Infrastructure planning• Renewables

Socio-EconomicsWe work with landowners and developers, deploying our research skills and innovative approaches to promote their schemes, particularly where local plan policies are challenging.

Our master planning and site development strategies maximise the opportunity for development returns, while ensuring that the appropriate levels of community infrastructure and public open space are included.

Our clients value our knowledge at the forefront of best practice in healthy living and demographic analysis, partnering with us to minimise planning risk and deliver legacy development.

We work throughout the UK, regularly working closely with colleagues in planning, environmental impact assessment,, urban design, residential development and commercial to provide a well informed and seamless service.

• Site development strategies (new towns through to single occupier sites)

• Demographic research and modelling• Housing, commercial & sports research

and market intelligence• Employment land supply and need

assessments• Social infrastructure assessments• Economic and socio-economic impact

assessment• Health impact assessments• Retail impact assessments• GIS (Geographic Information System)

mapping of social, economic and market data

• Defining S106 requirements

Urban Design StudioOur qualified and experienced urban designers and chartered landscape architects thrive on designing creative but relevant solutions that are appropriate to a site, yet maximise its value. We see a site’s constraints, its potential – even how it might develop and extend over decades.

Our team is helping to shape the built environment of the future, whether it’s new villages and science parks, commercial developments or university colleges. Dedicated to fostering long-term relationships with clients, we work across the country on multi-team projects where we link in seamlessly with colleagues in Bidwells’ planning, heritage, residential development and rural teams to offer clients an invaluable end-to-end service.

• Creating masterplans of new developments

• Maximising the value of your land or property

• Finding new solutions for small or sensitive sites

• Exploring creative ways to kick-start a stalled planning process

• Producing landscape and visual impact assessments (LVIA)

• Visualising new rural developments• Designing new education environments• Helping to visualise how a development

will look on the ground

OUR SERVICES

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)Minimising the environmental impact of our clients’ proposed developments is something we take seriously and are recognised by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) as being at the forefront of good practice and expertise in EIA. This is reflected by our EIA Quality Mark Accreditation, which demonstrates our ‘competent expert’ status.

We embed EIA principles and considerations into our planning work from the outset so that project designs can be adapted to minimise risk, maximise positive planning outcomes and promote cost effectiveness.

Our clients are some of the UK’s major house builders, universities, developers and conservation charities – they partner with us for our expertise, commitment to best practice and exceptional results.

• EIA screening reports• EIA scoping to focus Environmental

Statements on key issues • Full EIA Coordination and Environmental

Statement production• Environmental Statement review• Monitoring post consent mitigation

HeritageWe understand the responsibility that comes with owning an historic building; we help our clients to preserve these unique assets while exploring their value for the long term.

We work with clients including major house builders, the National Trust, the Imperial War Museum and Oxbridge colleges. They come to Bidwells because they want a property partner who has respect for, and understanding of, our built heritage.

We start by assessing your site’s level of heritage significance, then we suggest various development and enhancement opportunities that you might explore. We highlight the potential value that each scenario would bring, as well as the possible challenges involved.

• Providing strategic planning advice on all heritage matters

• Undertaking setting-assessments where proposed development may result in on- or off-site impacts

• Setting design parameters for heritage-related projects during feasibility and advising on design approach and mitigation

• Helping to unlock heritage issues that arise during the planning process, including justifications and the presentation of heritage benefits

• Negotiating with Conservation Officers and Historic England

• Handling planning applications for new development, alterations or extensions

• Providing Significance Assessments, Heritage Impact Assessments and Heritage Statements to support applications

• Townscape Character and Impact Assessment reports

• Handling Enforcement issues and liaising with Officers

J SHEEKEY, LONDONBidwells’ Urban Design Studio worked in collaboration with bespoke furniture and fixture manufacturers Crown Outdoor, to redesign the outdoor dining area for J. Sheekey seafood and oyster restaurant in the heart of London’s theatre district.

The team gained planning permission for 60 new covers and major upgrade works to the front façade within the conservation area of Westminister, creating an attractive and uncluttered façade to the street, improving the physical environment for both the patrons of the restaurant, as well as pedestrians on St Martin’s Court.

CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE PARK, CAMBRIDGEThe team set out the EIA strategy alongside the planning objectives to prepare EIA screening requests, identifying the key environmental issues associated with the project.

Preparing EIA screening reports with key environmental inputs, the team evidenced how environmental impacts would be minimised as part of the scheme, specifically to traffic impacts and capacity on the local road network. Throughout the process, they coordinated and advised the technical team to ensure the EIA process was aligned with the planning strategy.

DEREHAM MALTINGS, NORFOLKBidwells developed a master plan for this mixed-use and open space scheme proposal. The team integrated Purcell Architects proposals for the Listed Maltings building within a broader master plan for up to 127 residential dwellings.

The conceptual master plan incorporates a mix of dwelling types across four distinctive character areas. Open space proposals include a series of urban squares and a linear park along the adjacent wetland corridor. Apartments, railway-style cottages, townhouses, semi and detached dwellings offer a diverse mix of properties within 10 minutes walking distance of Dereham town centre.

HOCKLEY MILLS, BIRMINGHAMThe team prepared a Heritage Statement to accompany an application for the redevelopment of land at Pitsford Street in Birmingham, currently occupied by a warehouse, to provide new residential accommodation, office and retail space and a hotel within the Jewellery Quarter conservation area.

Our involvement was to clearly identify the relative residual significance of the surrounding historic Jewellery Quartercontext and to assess the potential impacts arising from the proposed redevelopment of the site.

CAMBRIDGE NORTH STATION Bidwells produced an EIA strategy to facilitate the regeneration of the former Chesterton Sidings site to deliver Cambridge North Station and surroundings. The team secured planning permission for revised EIA development proposals and provided EIA screening reports which removed the need to complete full EIA for subsequent applications.

The team integrated with planning services to successfully increase the density of the park and deliver an uplift in floor space, whilst addressing sensitive landscape and transport challenges.

SCUDAMORES PUNTING STATIONS, CAMBRIDGEThe team provided Heritage Statements supporting planning applications for new pontoons and ticket offices for Scudamore’s punt stations in the iconic locations of Mill Pond and Quayside, Cambridge.

Our design advice was provided to ensure the ticket offices subtly sit within these historic views. Avoiding Listed Building Consent by ensuring these offices are not attached to listed bridges.

Planning consent was granted for both punt station sites. These will benefit from general improvement to appearance and once completed, the proposals will allow for access to punting for disabled patrons.

GALLOP IN THE SKY, NEWMARKETFrom the inception of the idea for a new uphill endurance gallop, Bidwells worked closely with Jockey Club Estates Ltd to progress a unique and inspiring proposal for a kilometre long ‘elevated’ horse gallop to the west of Newmarket.Providing an integral multi-specialist team including planning, EIA, structural engineering, design, master planning, LVIA and landscape design, they shaped the full planning application.

The GLVIA3 compliant assessment progressed together alongside the development of the design, which in itself was done in collaboration with the client, the local authority and other stake holders. Landscape interventions such as landform, woodland cover, and retaining the existing structure of the landscape as far as possible, were incorporated into the proposals as a result of the assessment.

BRADFIELD CENTRE, CAMBRIDGEBidwells provided landscape design services for the Bradfield Centre, a 50,000 sq ft Innovation Hub at the heart of the Cambridge Science Park. The centre will nurture scalable, high-growth business in Cambridge to create a community of 500 innovators.

The team submitted a full planning application and discharged all landscape related conditions, delivering landscape design services through RIBA Stages one - seven. Providing monitoring services throughout the construction and handover phase, the scheme has now achieved BREEAM excellent accreditation.

ATTLEBOROUGH, NORFOLLKBidwells provided environmental impact assessment advise for a new urban extension to Attleborough, providing 4,000 new homes, schools, linear park, open space, local and neighbourhood centres, community facilities and a new link road to help remove traffic from the town centre

The team coordinated and managed a project team to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment in support of the planning application whilst working with architects and clients to engage with local community and obtain support for proposals. Breckland Planning Committee granted the outline planning permission unanimously.

SUMMERHOUSE WAY, ABBOTTS LANGLEY Bidwells was instructed by Thrive Homes to obtain planning permission for the demolition of two existing residential blocks and replacing them with 43 apartments and a single detached dwelling.

The application was supported with a detailed planning statement to overcome policy objections and demonstrated the case to support the development, which doubles theexisting number of dwellings onthe site.

NEW CIVIC QUARTER AT GADE ZONE, HEMEL HEMPSTEADThe team provided planning and agency advice on the regeneration of the Gade Zone in Hemel Hempstead.

Bidwells obtained a full planning application for phase one construction of a 6,650 sqm public service quarter building, within a tight timescale.

An outline planning application was secured for phase two, to include complementary residential development of up to 207 appartments and retail unit (375 sqm).

Initial work on preparing a full planning application is underway for the final phase of the development which will include, a leisure complex, with cinema and restaurants on the former market square.

NEW CANALSIDE QUARTER, MILTON KEYNESBidwells secured reserved matters consent and a hybrid planning permission for a mixed use development in Central Milton Keynes.

The team coordinated the design team throughout the pre-application and planning application processes, whilst arranging public consultation events at CMK shopping centre and managing the political and stakeholder consultation.

The development includes 383 new homes, a café, shop, restaurant, nursery and public house, with a pedestrian and cyclist bridge linking the two developments.

M&S AND ALDI, ROYSTONBidwells successfully obtained planning permission for two new supermarkets following the withdrawal of Waitrose from a previous scheme.

The team secured planning permission for a new junction onto the A505 to create a new gateway to the town and tailored a scheme to meet the specific operational requirements of Marks and Spencer and Aldi.

Image courtesy of Farrell & Clark Architects

CB1, CAMBRIDGEBidwells worked on the redevelopment of CB1, a 1.6 million sq ft masterplan creating a new quarter around the historic station in Cambridge city.

The team prepared a planning strategy to overcome 26 reasons for refusal of previous scheme (by others) and submitted outline application and accompanying environmental impact assessment for the development. They negotiated with all key stakeholders including City and County Council, English Heritage, rail industry, taxi industry, heritage groups and local residents.

FOX & PHEASANT, FULHAM Planning consent was granted in December 2017 after we prepared a Heritage Statement to accompanya pre-application enquiry and subsequent planning application for a single-storey, rear extension toprovide a new dining area for the public house within an existing courtyard.

Our client, who purchased the pub from Greene King, will preserve the pub’s character and 1930s interior aswell as improve its menu to ensure the Fox and Pheasant’s commercial success.

COMET HOTEL, HATFIELD We were instructed to prepare a Significance Assessment and Heritage Impact Assessment relating to proposals for internal adaptation and re-development of the existing 1930s Grade II listed hotel, and the development of student accommodation. We undertook an assessment of the significance of the existing Grade II listed building, internally and externally, and provided design advice in relation to internal layouts and new-build elements. Our client secured full planning permission and listed building consent for their project.

NORWICH SCIENCE PARK, NORWICHBidwells was instructed to coordinate and manage the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the strategic expansion of the Norwich Research Park.

They put forward a robust Environmental Statement to secure the approval of 99,166 sqm (GIA) of offices, laboratories and academic space and buildings for health and health-related uses and through consultation on the application, gained unanimous approval at South Norfolk Council’s planning committee.Coordinating, advising and working to ensure the EIA process was integral to the development of the outline proposals, the team defined the key parameters against which the assessment was based, for the 20-30 year expansion of the park.

Bidwellsplanning@bidwells.co.uk bidwells.co.uk/planning 020 3797 3680

Bidwells is a trading name of Bidwells LLP, a limited liability partnership, registered in England and Wales with number OC344553. Registered office: Bidwell House Trumpington Road Cambridge CB2 9LD. 0166