SAILS

Description

The scheme brings back in to use a brownfield Council site and provides pedestrian and cycle links to encourage sustainable travel, as well as improving the health and wellbeing of residents. \r\n\r\nExisting site features and trees have been retained at the entrance of the site, where a public garden and art display, designed by local school children, has been added to compliment the new homes. \r\n\r\nThe site is adjacent to an existing sheltered housing scheme and incorporates a physical footpath link connecting current residents to the new apartments. This secure footpath allows new and existing residents to link up during social and community activities and access future flexible floating care support. This shared services approach is expected to improve resident wellbeing and deliver savings to the public purse.

Planning History

The scheme is built on a brownfield site which formerly housed the Council transport depot. It had previously had approximately 29 applications related to it, all for industrial buildings or associated works. \r\n\r\nIn addition to usual standard material clauses the main issues were:\r\n\r\nLand Contamination: A thorough survey was carried out for contaminated land as the site was an old council maintenance yard with vehicle servicing. Parts of the site were found to contain engine oil and contaminants and a strategy was put into place to remedy the hazard. Once this was dealt with new topsoil was used to raise garden levels and provide good private and public green spaces.\r\n\r\nHeight of buildings: A requirement of the Wigan and Leigh Homes was to provide a number of apartments and the only way to provide suitable numbers was to construct a three storey building. The team had a number of conversations with the planning department regarding siting, height and orientation and produced a number of designs. The preferred design was located away from the boundaries of the site and was reduced in scale by creating rooms in the roof slope. This visually reduced the height of the building whilst keeping the required number of units as specified.\r\n\r\nExisting trees to front of site: Established trees to the front of the site influenced the design of the scheme from and early stage. The first properties are set back into the site beyond these trees and an attractive path and community artwork area was created to enhance the landscape. Seddon carefully protected these trees during the duration of the works, including fencing to protect the root zone.