Agenda item

RESOLVED, that the Urban Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document be supported, subject to minor changes to be considered by the Renewal, Recreation and Housing PDS Committee.

Report HPR2023/039

The Committee considered a report recommending the adoption of the Urban Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document which provided guidance to inform development proposals coming forward in Bromley with the aim of ensuring consistent high-quality design. 

The Head of Planning Policy and Strategy and the Planning Policy Officer made a presentation to the Committee outlining the development of the Urban Design Guide.  This included a public consultation undertaken between 28 October 2022 to 9 December 2022 that had resulted in a number of amendments being made.  The final draft Urban Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document would also be considered by the Renewal, Recreation and Housing PDS Committee at its meeting on 15 June 2023 and for adoption by the Council’s Executive at its meeting on 5 July 2023.

The Chairman thanked officers for the excellent work undertaken in developing the final draft Urban Design Guide and observed that the purpose of this document was to provide clear guidance on urban design to inform planning policy.  The Urban Design Guide was not policy in itself but would carry weight in planning applications.  A Member suggested a number of small amendments to be made to the draft final Urban Design Guide and underlined the need for guidelines relating to Tall Buildings to be sufficiently flexible to ensure that development within the Borough was appropriate in both scale and geographic location.  In answering a related question from another Member, the Head of Planning Policy and Strategy confirmed that developers were required to submit detailed information within their planning applications regarding the anticipated impact of the development on local infrastructure, including discussions with local infrastructure providers.  A Member was pleased to note that the Urban Design Guide recommended the use of solar tiles in place of solar panels in more sensitive areas of the Borough, including conservation areas. 

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Head of Planning Policy and Strategy confirmed that while the majority of photographs within the Urban Design Guide depicted examples from outside the Borough it was anticipated that as more high-quality schemes were progressed, these could be replaced with Bromley images in future iterations of the document.  A Member suggested that shop frontages in Chislehurst could provide excellent examples of good practice in the Urban Design Guide and observed that the Urban Design Guide itself had been informed in places by the original Chislehurst Shopfront Design Guide.  The Member went on to emphasise the importance of promoting the Urban Design Guide to local businesses once adopted, as well as raising awareness around the requirement to obtain planning permission for certain changes which could help reduce future breaches of planning control.

With regard to other matters, a Member welcomed the dedicated section on access and inclusion in the final draft Urban Design Guide and suggested a minor amendment be made at Paragraph 5.254 to underline that development proposals ‘should’ rather than ‘can’ promote good health and wellbeing.  Another Member saw that there was little mention of nuisance noise within the Urban Design Guide and the Planning Policy Officer advised that while there were limited references to noise in relation to environmental amenity, the Urban Design Guide was primarily focused on design.  The issue of noise nuisance was specifically addressed in policies within the Local Plan, London Plan and National Planning Policy Framework.  A Member observed that what was considered good urban design changed over time and there was a need to take a long term and holistic view for development in the Borough.

In summation, the Chairman moved that the following changes to the Urban Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document be recommended for agreement by the Renewal, Recreation and Housing PDS Committee at its meeting on 15 June 2023 and this was put to the vote and CARRIED:

-  Paragraph 3.11: Change to ‘Petts Wood developed during the late 1920s and 1930s, inspired by the Garden City movement following the Garden Suburb principle.’

-  Guidance Note DG14, Part B – Change from ‘best practice’ to ‘good practice’.

-  Paragraph 5.254 – Change from ‘can’ to ‘should.’

-  Guidance Note DG19, Parts A and B – Change to ‘a) Adopting Noting the Healthy Streets Approach’ and ‘b) Adopting Noting an inclusive holistic approach’.

-  Guidance Note DG20, Part C – Change to ‘Incorporating internal and external water saving water consumption measures to minimise consumption ensure efficient use of water resources, and external Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDs) to manage surface water and flood risk.’

RESOLVED: That the Renewal, Recreation and Housing PDS Committee be asked to agree the proposed above amendments and recommend the Council’s Executive to:

1)  Adopt the Urban Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document as a local development document, subject to any further minor changes (e.g. -. related to formatting or mapping) prior to adoption; and,

2)  Withdraw the following documents:

·  Supplementary Planning Guidance 1 – General Design Principles;

·  Supplementary Planning Guidance 2 – Residential Design Guidance; and,

·  Design Guides for Shop Fronts in Beckenham, Chislehurst and Bromley North Village.