Wheatley Hall Road, Doncaster
With the relocation of the McCormicks tractor assembly operations to Europe, Commercial Estates Group have 40 Hectares of vacant and under-utilised land within the Main Urban Area of Doncaster situated 3km to the north east of the town centre.
Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, PRP's brief was to prepare a mixed use masterplan which incorporated employment, leisure, commercial, community, residential uses and open space to support an outline planning application.
The generation of maximum value for the client was also central to this brief which has required a very strong character and vision for this currently run down area. Due to the economic climate the schedule of accommodation/uses across the site has varied over the lifetime of the project. It was therefore essential that the masterplan was robust to be able to respond to these changes whilst retaining the original vision.
The key aims of the masterplan were to open up the water front and provide safe and easy access to it and the other uses throughout the site; integrating the site with its surroundings; enhance links to the town centre, open space, schools and employment, and; creating a more active and positive frontage along Wheatley Hall Road.
However there were a number of constraints which needed to be addressed which included a cordon sanitaire due to the sewage works; noise from a series of sources including the A630, the Polypipe factory, and sub-station; a sewer easement running north south across the site; limited access from the A630; retention of the acid grassland, and; the site's location within Flood Risk Zone 3A.
The masterplan that has evolved takes into consideration the social, economic and environmental consequences of the development by; providing a range of easily accessible neighbourhood facilities and services; delivering a mix of house types to meet current housing needs and a range of employment opportunities. The built form is a series of well defined perimeter blocks which provide natural surveillance over accessible public open space and a public realm which creates direct access to the water's edge. Pedestrian priority routes and cycleways provide safe, attractive and direct connections within the development and to and from the existing surroundings.
The outline planning application was submitted in September 2010 and a resolution to approve subject to completion of the Section 106 agreement was granted in February 2011.
