Commendation for best large housing development
New Arts & Crafts
In the course of their award-winning regeneration of many brownfield sites, Crest Nicholson has managed to develop a vernacular architecture for each site that only occasional lapses into pastiche. At Bolnore Village, the new urban extension to Haywards Heath, work is nearing completion on Phase 2 of the development, which took nine years in planning and still has three more phases to go.
Originally intended to have 780 new homes, this target has already been raised to 1,200 as a result of PPG3 and the Government’s insistence on building sustainable communities, and planning consent has been sought to raise the total to 1,600 homes, which predictably has upset existing residents, who are not even happy with the idea of 1,200.
Other homebuilders such as Bellway, David Wilson and Bovis Homes are already building in Bolnore Village, and the target for the provision of affordable social housing by Hyde Housing Association and Downland Housing Association has been raised from 215 to 300 new homes, which already includes 22 apartments for people over 55.
Bolnore was designed to be “a new village that re-creates the gradual evolution of traditional rural community.” Crest Nicholson deserves praise for the quality of what it has already built, though the same cannot be said for some of the new housing by other homebuilders, who do not seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Crest Nicholson goes a bit too far by having a thatched “woodcutter’s cottage,” but with its present construction of seven shops below two floors of flats, and proposals for a doctor’s surgery, village hall and a school, it is creating much more than the usual large housing estates of recent years.
At its best, Crest Nicholson has achieved street scenes that are reminiscent of the Arts & Crafts houses of Hampstead Garden Suburb and Bedford Park, and anyone who doubts this should look at early photographs of those to see how much better Bolnore Village is at the same point in its development. Someone just needs to pay attention to the criticisms expressed by residents on their excellent website www.bolnorevillage.net which is also more informative and convincingly positive about the village than the official website.
HomeBuilder: CREST NICHOLSON SOUTH LIMITED
41 Thames Street, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 8JG
Tel 01932 700500 Fax 01932 700555
Contact: John Taylor, Sales & Marketing Director
Email: jtaylor@crestnicholson.com
Websites: www.crestnicholson.com and
www.bolnorevillage.com
Architects: OMEGA PARTNERSHIP LIMITED
39 Common Road, Claygate, Esher, Surrey KT10 0HG
Tel 01372 470313 Fax 01372 470358
Contact: Alex Russell, Architectural Assistant
Email: alex@omegapartnership.co.uk
Website: www.omegapartnership.co.uk