Local case study: South Kilburn Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

 Local case study: South Kilburn Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) Ric Eales Collingwood Environmental Planning

The South Kilburn SPD SA • South Kilburn – the present • The Masterplan and SPD – the future • The SEA • What difference did it make?

Where is South Kilburn? South Kilburn

Current South Kilburn • Predominantly residential • Home for 7,143 people • 48 hectares of land • Dominated by high rise, mainly low quality public housing • Poorly design communal space • Some remnants of street network and buildings survive from Victorian period

Current housing stock 1950's Buildings 1960's Building Victorian Buildings Bison Blocks

South Kilburn – key issues • South Kilburn is historically and culturally rich, has a well motivated community, is well severed by public transport, but suffers from: • Poor housing conditions • Limited dwelling mix and range of housing tenure, with 78% of homes in public ownership • Limited mix of uses to support a residential environment • Variable and in places poor physical environment. The design and location of the public realm and the internal street layout is particularly poor • Multiple deprivation, including low income, high unemployment, low educational attainment and poor health indicators • High incidence of crime and fear of crime • Physical, social and economic disparity between South Kilburn and surrounding areas

South Kilburn – planning for the future • South Kilburn “New Deal for Communities” announced in 1999 • Community led partnership • Commissioned Masterplan – physical framework for regeneration • SPD seeks to establish the principles and parameters to guide future development and ensure the long term vision is realised

Delivery vehicle Community involvement Supplementary Planning Document Masterplan

South Kilburn in the Future • Replacement and refurbishment of homes • Additional private homes • Mixture of tenure of affordable homes and including family units • Provision of community facilities • Provision of commercial uses • Provision of public and private open space • Improved street network, pedestrian and cycle routes etc • Improvements to public transport • Requirements relating to sustainable development standards and waste management • etc etc …

The future becoming reality … • Environmentally friendly demonstration homes topped by an innovative living 'green‘ roofs • Residents working closely with the architects • Generous in size, light, high standards of noise and thermal insulation, low energy use, high levels of security, private garden space for families with children and decent sized balconies • Once built, the 20 new maisonettes and flats will be open for residents to come and look at – inside and out – to see what the future housing in South Kilburn could be like Demonstration homes

Aims of the SPD • The SPD: • provides additional planning guidance on matters covered by policies in the Unitary Development Plan and the London Plan • provides guidance for developers as to the Council's expectations and requirements • will be used to assess future planning applications • provides a connection between the Masterplan and the planning system • ensures that future development of South Kilburn is undertaken in accordance with the Masterplan

The SEA • SEA of the draft SPD undertaken by CEP between October 2004 and January 2005 • Retrospective assessment of strategic alternatives linked to those explored by the masterplan – refurbish vs redevelopment • More detailed appraisal focussed on ‘development principles’ in the SPD

The SEA – key challenges • Early days of Local Development Framework SEAs • Timing - came in quite late! • Timescales - too short! • Remote from SPD drafting process • Level of detail appropriate? – SPD included principles, design guidance and private sites • What to assess? – no policies but principles etc

The SEA – effectiveness • Focussed on achieving the best environmental outcome and increasing the certainty of delivery • Degree of confidence in the delivery of environmental requirements guided the assessment and recommendations • Implementation mechanisms to deliver enhancements / mitigation included legal agreements, minimum standards, other consents, other strategies (e.g. phasing) • Ensuring issues that were too detailed or site specific for the SPD SEA would be dealt with at the next stages e.g. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) at outline planning application stage, planning application supporting information

The SEA – effectiveness • Example of layout of appraisal of development principles

The SEA – effectiveness • Iterative process of revising the draft SPD – responses recorded to the SEA’s recommendations

The SEA – examples of what it changed • Requirements added for several assessment and strategies to accompany an outline planning application and be incorporated into the EIA (e.g. air quality impact assessment, education impact assessment, Low Water Strategy, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems Strategy • Types of development requiring Green Travel Plans extended • Native species to be used in landscaping of public and private open space • BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method) • Exemplar eco-homes • Various wording changes from ‘encourage’ to ‘require’!

Lessons learnt • Things that worked well: • The SEA had to be sufficiently detail to have a meaningful influence over what was a very detailed plan (but avoid becoming more like an Environmental Impact Assessment of individual sites) • The authors of the plan were very willing to incorporate environmental requirements which meant the SEA could have a real influence • As the SPD did not include policies, a different approach to the assessment was needed compared with many SEAs

Lessons learnt • Things that worked less well: • The SEA was undertaken very quickly and after the SPD had been largely drafted • Also limited stakeholder engagement was possible given the timescale • Possible solutions: • Ensure the SEA is started early enough • Ensure the SEA is started early enough

The Sustainability Appraisal – if you want to read more!! • http://www.brent.gov.uk/regeneration.nsf/South%20Kilburn/LBB-33

Local case study: South Kilburn Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)