Shaping the estate at golf course site
Royal Borough: Details released on schools, GPs and infrastructure
The Royal Borough has put together a draft document which provides more detailed guidance on the now-adopted Borough Local Plan (BLP). This document specifically covers the site of South West Maidenhead – which includes the Maidenhead Golf Course area – and will be considered by cabinet members at a meeting tonight before going out for public consultation. Reporter Adrian Williams took a closer look at what is in the document.
The Royal Borough has put together a document that goes into more detail about what is expected on the Maidenhead Golf Course site and surrounding areas, where thousands of homes are planned.
The area is known as the South West Maidenhead Strategic Placemaking Area (SWMSPA) or South West Maidenhead.
A large part of the northern and central part of the site comprises Maidenhead Golf Course, known as the AL13 housing site.
The aim is to deliver a secondary school, a primary school and a ‘local centre’ incorporating a mix of uses including retail, leisure, community facilities, health and recycling facilities.
The AL14 employment site is south of the housing site and the A308(M). It is also known as The Triangle.
The council has put together a draft of what’s known as a supplementary planning document
(SPD) – which provides more detailed advice or guidance on policies in an adopted local plan.
The aim is to deliver about half the housing as family homes and half as flats, with the proportion of family housing increasing further south on the AL13 site.
Thirty per cent of this is set to be affordable.
This should be provided in a way that avoids large clusters and be ‘well integrated with the market housing’ so the appearance of the development is ‘tenure blind’, according to the document.
With less dedicated private gardens, the streets and spaces around buildings will ‘need to function as amenity and play space.’
Street trees and planting in private and communal spaces ‘should be included in all neighbourhoods whether higher density or not.’
Existing health infrastructure is ‘under increasing pressure’ due to a rise in population and the ‘inadequacy’ of some of the surgery buildings which are ‘outdated and no longer fit for purpose.’
The scale of this residential development will generate ‘significant additional demand’ for
primary health care facilities.
Existing surgeries in the area ‘have little additional capacity.’
There may be an opportunity within the proposed local centre for a new medical facility to replace some of the existing GP surgeries close to the site.
Consideration is being given to the primary health care provision in the wider area, including the scope for the relocation of some existing primary healthcare provision onto the AL13 housing site to form a health hub.
This should form part of the local centre.
The scope exists to combine a health hub with the provision of a multi-purpose community building.
It is assumed that a proportion of schemes are funded by other sources:
W Secondary school – 50 per cent funded by other sources
W Health facility – 60 per cent funded by other sources
W M4 Junction 8/9 – a maximum £3million contribution from the South West Maidenhead development with the remainder funded by the Government.
Broadly, those other funding sources would need to fund about £25.5-£28million of the total £100£110million of infrastructure costs.
There will also be a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) on the AL13 site.
CIL is a charge that local authorities can set on new development to raise funds for the facilities and services – such as schools or transport – needed to support new homes and businesses.
CIL is chargeable on the AL13 housing site but not on the industrial development on AL14.
Based on the level of development anticipated (2,600 homes), it is estimated that the housing development will generate about £40£42million in CIL.
On the Triangle, the priority should be to deliver smaller ‘flexible’ units for small and mediumsized businesses.
There may be the opportunity to establish a bike share scheme. Some short term on-street car parking could also be included along key routes for visitors.
There is a ‘particularly significant flood risk’ on the AL14 site. Issues of surface water flooding and risk to groundwater will need to be addressed.
W To read more about the South West Maidenhead development, visit the Advertiser’s website.