Stanton Cross

Location

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

Date

2011 — present

Status

Ongoing

Client

Bovis Homes / Vistry Group

Services

Planning, Masterplanning, Urban Design & Landscape Architecture

Deliverables

Development Plan Representation, Masterplan, Landscape & Visual Appraisal, EIA, Design & Access Statement, & Development / Design Briefs

Garden Community

Stanton Cross was first conceived as a sustainable urban extension to Wellingborough in the late 1990s. The creation of a new garden community with over 3000 new homes in this location has always had wide support from key stakeholders, both locally and nationally, recognising the socio-economic benefits that strategic growth in this location close to the train station and town centre would bring to the town.

However, the severance created by the Midland Mainline and the Rivers Ise and Nene, acute environmental constraints, required strategic infrastructure delivery and associated viability pressures has made its delivery challenging.

An Iterative Assessment and Design Process

The creative and iterative EIA and masterplanning process undertaken throughout the life of the project together with the seamless management of the planning process has sought to address those challenges. The development scheme has been shaped and refined to embed primary mitigation measures, define the optimal response to the planning policy context and site-specific opportunities and constraints, and ensure the swift implementation of the planning permissions that have been secured.

The resultant Masterplan builds on the historic radial structure of the town by bridging the rail and river corridors and creating strategic movement green infrastructure corridors that directly reconnect the site to the town. New railway station facilities are to be provided at a transport interchange on the principal Midland Road connection that is now open between the town centre and neighbourhood centre. The new road crosses the Ise Valley where a new Town and County Park is being created to provide a strategic recreation and environmental resource for the town and beautiful setting for the development.

Delivery

The first phases of residential development have proved to be extremely popular and are progressing quickly on site. A thriving community within Stanton Cross is emerging and the focus is now on accelerating the delivery of further phases through the preparation of design briefs and reserved matters submissions for the residential areas, key community facilities and green infrastructure in and around the neighbourhood centre to provide multi-generational live, work and recreation opportunities.

Station Island

Station Island is a unique development opportunity within Stanton Cross. It is ideally positioned to provide the handshake between the town and new community, but is also subject to a wide variety of acute constraints.

The approved Design Brief establishes a framework that will facilitate the creation of a vibrant and prosperous neighbourhood with a rich variety of residential, employment, commercial and community premises and a true sense of place that draws on both its heritage and dynamic nature close to the new railway station facilities.