Town Planning & Urban Design Ltd.
Day House, Alma Road, Romsey (15/01608/FULLS, 16/00794/OBLS, 16/02966/FULS)
Brought in to advise the client by Trevor Harrison, some months had gone by in fruitless discussions with a (then) understaffed Test Valley Borough Council. I quickly established a rapport with Officers there and revisiting the contextual analysis (including adjoining building feature heights), helped to inform a revised design solution for a new block of 7 flats, following demolition of the non-descript and tired bungalow on the site.
The client worked with John Warwick in terms of these new plans.
PM Creative (http://www.pmcreative.net) were also used by the client to prepare before and after visuals to convince the council that despite being arranged on 3 levels, the scheme would not dominate the adjoining Grade II Listed Bishop Blaize pub, nor the setting of the abutting Conservation Area.
As was common at the time, following the High Court challenge to the Secretary of State’s ministerial statement on tariff style contributions not applying to schemes under 11 dwellings, an unfortunate amount of time was taken unravelling a related legal agreement.
This was successfully achieved after a full and frank meeting with the council, at Officer and Member level before that further application was submitted.
At that point, the scheme’s viability was also re-evaluated and added value was sought from the scheme by some small elevational adjustments and conversion of the top 3 bed flat into two x 2 bed flats, construction then being well progressed with the roof structure.
The scheme is now fully built out by client Paramount Construction and Maintenance Ltd as Kings Court.
Testimonial from Paul @ PM Creative:
“Steve immediately saw the value of PM Creative's accurate before and after visualisation work, in persuading the council to accept the height of the proposed new building and the shape and massing of its roof. Steve has the ability to cut to the chase on key project issues to secure the best chance of obtaining planning permission for his clients. Kind regards, Paul”
