The design of some highways in England has resulted in urban housing schemes being characterised by dominant roads and badly-integrated car parking – leading to a poor-quality streetscene and increased dependency on the car, according to a new report.
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) is urging local authorities, developers, planners and highways departments to strive for higher-quality design, after it found that 29% of developments in the East Midlands, West Midlands and the Southwest over the last five years should not have been granted planning permission.
The Housing Audit report identified that schemes often had a badly structured layout, ‘leading to a poor-quality landscape, a lack of distinction between public and private realms, and a development that was difficult to navigate’. CABE studied 293 development schemes throughout the nine regions in England, between 2001 and 2006. Across the three regions covered in the report, only 8% of developments were judged good or very good, while 40% were found to be poor. The report included six case studies drawn from the schemes audited. From these, the report identified that ‘highway design can have a negative impact on design quality when considered in isolation from a strategy for place making’.
The second phase of a 1,150-house development at the former Balderton Hospital site in Newark and an 88-house development at Mawsley Village, Kettering, were two studies that concluded the highway design was detrimental to the development. www.cabe.org.uk