Success for TEP as our Planning and Landscape Design Team secures planning permission for a new leisure facility in the Borough of Havering.
TEP worked alongside clients Total Swimming and Havering Council to provide a range of environmental services for the new Leisure Centre and Community Park in Rainham, East London. The chosen site, following community consultation, is in a central location and within an existing recreation ground. It is also adjacent to a Conservation Area.
TEP oversaw the preparation and submission of the planning application, coordinating consultant inputs and assessing the proposals against the London Plan and local policy. TEP’s Planning Team also prepared other key elements of the planning application, including the Statement of Community Involvement, a Health Impact Assessment and Construction Management Plan, as well as preparing the calculations and liaising with the Council on the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 contributions.
In partnership with Box Architects, TEP also provided landscape design services on the project, which became a key part of the proposals to address the loss of greenspace as a result of the proposed scheme. Whilst the proposals would result in a loss of 15% of the greenspace to built-form, TEP’s landscape design improves the quality of the remaining 85%. This was achieved through a range of landscape proposals, themed around health and well-being, which works with the existing features of the site and complements neighbouring land uses, such as the adjacent primary school. Landscape elements included a re-designed play area, sensory planting, wildflower meadows, community orchard, raised beds for vegetable growing, grassed events space, outdoor seating areas, as well as circular path routes to support health and fitness. A key feature of the landscape design is the creation of a striking green frontage to the new Leisure Centre and park when viewed from Viking Way which facilitates walking and cycling connections to other parts of the town. This work was supported by an Urban Greening Factor calculation carried out by TEP, which showed that even with the loss of green space the existing Urban Greening Factor of the site would be retained through the landscape improvements put forward and would exceed the London Mayor’s target for commercial developments.
TEP also carried out arboriculture and ecology surveys and reporting (including a BREEAM assessment) to support the planning application and inform the landscape design proposals for the site. The project was successful and granted planning consent in March 2021.
To learn more about our projects in the Leisure and Parks sector click here.
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