Cherry Tree Gardens, Blackburn

Project description: Residential development for 30no. dwellings, including provision of drainage infrastructure, public open space and associated works together with public car parking area, following demolition of carehome buildings and associated works including bat mitigation measures.

Project status: Approved (completed)

Our client, a housing developer, purchased the site from the local council who were operating the site as a care home. The care home had closed and become a hot-spot for anti-social behaviour. As well as being occupied as a bat roost, there was considerable local opposition to the proposals due to local resident’s perceptions of adverse impacts on availability of street-side parking and the amenity of existing houses nearby.

We worked closely with the client and project architect to devise a deliverable housing layout and led the full project / consultancy team. Our roles included conducting community consultation and engaging the council in pre-application correspondence prior to submitting a formal application for 30no. dwellings. We liaised with the ecologist and landscape architect to ensure that the application included a suitable landscaping scheme and bat mitigation measures.

We devised supporting reports and collaborated with the local police regarding crime mitigation and prevention within the detailed design. Revised plans were also devised which provided a community car park to ease road-side parking congestion. We supported the application through the statutory and public consultation process, resulting in approval of the application at planning committee.

Following approval, we assisted the client with construction (in particular, securing a protected species licence) and advised on the relevant Advertisement Regulations regarding the marketing of the homes and display of advert hoardings around the site.

Consultants instructed on the project included: architect, landscape architect, ecology and biodiversity specialists, drainage engineers, highways consultants, geo-environmental scientists (asbestos contamination and coal mining risk) and topographical surveyors.

For more information about this project, you can see the news article here or to ask about your own project, please contact us.